Censorship! On the Campaign Trail?

Elections for officers for the Class of 2014 were held last week at Grosse Pointe South High School. While fourteen-year old Isaac Piecuch of Grosse Pointe Farms was elected in a landslide to be president of his school's freshman class, he encountered some bumps on his road to victory.

Unknown to the voters at South High School, Isaac is a second cousin of Juan Williams, the recently dropped political commentator for National Public Radio, and now the darling of Fox News.

As celebrities go, Williams is a one who until recently elicited blank stares from most people. Not too many of Isaac's classmates listened to NPR, let alone picked up Williams' biography of Thurgood Marshall or cared that he was on the editorial board of the Washington Post. But now, thanks to the attentions of Bill O'Reilly, Whoopie Goldberg, and Jon Stewart, Williams is practically a household name--and Isaac is his cousin.

The son of immigrants from Panama, Williams and Isaac's mother (my wife Clarisa) grew up together in Brooklyn, New York. Williams' parents figured out that education was the key to success and they somehow sent Juan to prestigious boarding schools, even though their personal finances were modest at best. Talent, hardwork and a good education clearly paid off for Juan.

Isaac has met Juan a few times--at family gatherings--weddings, and, most recently, the April funeral of Isaac's grandfather, who also was Williams' first cousin. At that funeral Isaac sang the old gospel song, "His Eye is On the Sparrow," which is why Williams remembers Isaac. Williams wrote a book on African American religious music, in which he talked about that very song.

Besides a common interest on music, Isaac, like his celebrity cousin, encountered his own bit of censorship during the recent campaign at South High School.

Administrators required all candidates to present advanced copies of their speeches for review, and one sentence in Isaac's presidential campaign speech was deleted. In its original form, the speech quoted Sarah Palin. Isaac wished to say, "The great political leader Sarah Palin once said, 'I can see Russia from my house.' While I can't see Russia from my house, I can see a freshman class excited and movtivated to improve their school."

The administration felt mentioning Sarah Palin might "offend people" so they edited it from the speech. Instead Isaac was permitted to say, "While I can't see Russia from my house, I can see a freshman class . . . "

Perhaps there was a suggestion of mockery in Isaac's initial quote that the administration frowned on. However, the tone of Isaac's speech was far more civil than the name calling, distortions and outright lies we're being subjected to this campaign season.

While news organizations like NPR and school administrators steer clear of public discourse that expresses personal opinions that could offend, who is there to protect the public from the unending onslaught of highly politicized messages we encounter on television, in direct mail pieces and on the radio. And these messages don't come from the mouths of identifiable speakers, but are paid for by undisclosed donors whose motivations are unknown to listeners. Something seems out of whack here.

OK, I'm ranting a bit. For a person who loves the First Amendment (which guarantees both free speech AND religion, are you reading this Christine O'Donnell?) I'm not looking to restrict free speech. However, is speech created by unknown persons that includes lies and distortions meant to sway public opinion protected by our Constitution? I don't think so. However, it seems wrong that in a year when liars are free to spew filth from behind their big rocks without fear of retribution, Juan Williams gets fired for expressing his reaction (which I share) to Muslims on airplanes post 9-11, and Isaac Piecuch is prohibited from saying the name "Sarah Palin" in a campaign speech.

In another interesting election twist at South High School, like many current candidates, Isaac feared being too closely associated with the U.S. President and chose not to hang his favorite campaign poster that read: "Vote for Isaac, he kind of looks like Obama."

Flattery Will Get You . . .

Who doesn't like a compliment?

I know I love them. Yeah, tell me I look handsome and . . . you pretty much own me. OK, maybe I'm not that shallow, but I do enjoy praise. In fact if you heap it on nice and thick, you won't hear me protest!

Many otherwise strong people have been brought down by their own vanity. After all, it is one of the seven deadly sins. And, apparently, one that I particularly am prone to indulge in.

So this week, a little bit of online flattery almost cost me money, my professional reputation, and good old, general humiliation. What happened you ask?

Two weeks ago, out of the blue, I received an email in my professional email account from someone purporting to be an attorney based in Brussels. The attorney said he had a client in Japan who he had represented, but now had a legal issue in my jurisdiction (the email never said "Michigan" however, which should have aroused my suspicion). The email went on and gave the contact information for his Japanese client.

My first reaction was pride. Wow, a European lawyer found my little website and decided, based on reading my glowing descriptions of my professional abilities, that I could represent his client. Figuring there was no harm in sending an email, I sent an email to the supposed client briefly introducing myself.

Four days later, I was surprised and delighted that I received back an email FROM JAPAN!!! And, yes, the president of a Japanese Steel Company was asking me to make a proposal to represent his company in a dispute with a Michigan company. I was thrilled.

To make a good proposal, I immediately did some online research. The Japanese company was a legitimate enterprise--in business since 1934. My purported potential client was in fact the president of the company. The Michigan corporation really is in business and could in fact have been in a dispute with a Japanese steel company.

I sent by email a brief proposal to Mr. Nishimoto and included a representation contract. I even asked for a significant retainer because this could be a big job, and I needed pre-paid funds to get started.

Two days later, to my delight, I received an email from Mr. Nishimoto. He claimed he had received approval from his Board of Directors to accept me as their Michigan legal counsel. He sent back a signed contract. He also sent me the purchase order that was the center of the dispute. This seemingly legitimate purchase order was signed AND SEALED by the president of the Michigan company. Everything appeared in order.

Mr. Nishimoto said he still wanted to keep the Michigan company as a customer. He said he told his customer that they had retained a Michigan lawyer in case they could not resolve their dispute and that I would spring into action "as a last resort". My instructions were to send wiring information so that he could send me my retainer, and then sit tight.

Wow, how easy! I would get paid, and, possibly not perform any services. At this point, however, nagging questions started popping up in my brain. Certain aspects of this chain of events seemed almost too good to be true. And, if something is too good to be true, in many cases, it isn't true.

But, I pushed forward with optimism, seeing this engagement as a chance to get some good publicity for my law firm. I even asked my daughter to start working on a press release to announce our new client. Both my daughter and I put on our Facebook pages, glowing announcements of our good fortune. However, I didn't send the bank routing information, not yet.

Ultimately, as we were compiling information for the press release, Lonelli Googled the name of the company and its president, and a listing appeared about scamming lawyers. Thank God for search engines!

As we read the posting, we saw that other lawyers in the United States had received nearly identical communications from persons needing legal representation. The set ups included the same companies, European lawyer, and legal dispute. One lawyer commenting on the scam said it originated in China, and he pointed out some of the "red flags" he noticed: poorly written correspondence; "too familiar" messages from persons who supposedly were C-level business execs; too quick turn around times for decisions.

Yeah, I had noticed those things too, but I didn't want to heed the signs, not at first. Yes I thought the writing style of the emails was a little strange, but the messages were written by persons for whom English is a second (or third) language. Why should I be put off by a little funky grammar!

And getting emails directly from the president of a multi-billion dollar steel company, that was unusual, wasn't it? Why wasn't he working through his own legal staff? When I get hired by big companies, its always by their legal counsel, not by their president. Ah, but here's where I was seduced by my own vanity. Why wouldn't the president of the company be impressed by my website and abilities? He clearly thought this matter was so important it required his personal attention.

Thank God I'm paranoid about sharing bank data through emails. I was not going to send him the keys to my professional bank account until I was completely sure the engagement was for real. But I was close. I did call my bank and confirmed the routing number. Sending the information was on my "to do" list for the day. I very nearly got scammed.

Instead I sent my "client" a sharply worded email saying he could fool a lot of people, but he didn't fool me! Secretly I hoped he would write me back and apologize and compliment me on my expert sleuthing skills. Maybe I'd hear him say like one of the confounded criminals on Scooby Doo, "Yeah, I almost got away with it, but those smarty pants kids figured it out."

Even better, perhaps Mr. Nishimoto would write back with more proofs and say, those lawyers in Virginia who were scammed, that was a fraud, but I'm for real, and I can prove it. And, I'll MAIL a check to you immediately to prove I still want you!

But instead, my inbox is strangely silent, and the scammers troll the internet looking for other lawyers whose vanity may cloud their better judgements.

Know any Japanese steel companies that need a good lawyer? I've got some free time on my schedule this week.