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Dave Aronberg Will Take Away Your Happy Pills!

Or something like that:

Former state senator Dave Aronberg of Greenacres is expected to lead a state effort aimed at eliminating unscrupulous pain clinics, or "pill mills."

 Attorney General-Elect Pam Bondi announced today that she will appoint Aronberg as a special counsel in her administration, charging him with leading an intense anti-pill mill initiative.

Aronberg, 39, served in the Florida Senate from 2002 through this year, when he lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for attorney general to state senator Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, who lost to Bondi in November.

I like this.

Dave's a good guy and this is a good cause, plus now he has a job.

It's also encouraging to see new AG Bondi reaching across aisle, something I wasn't quite expecting.

Speaking of happy pills, be careful about what you put in emails -- you could be sanctioned:

Tampa lawyer Nicholas F. Mooney calls his opponent a jerk and a "junior lawyer." Palmetto lawyer Kurt D. Mitchell questions Mooney's mental health. The name-calling continues over six months.

Now the Florida Supreme Court has weighed in, issuing sanctions for both lawyers.

After two complaints by the Florida Bar, Mitchell was suspended for 10 days and was ordered to attend an anger management class. Mooney gets a public reprimand and must take a class on professionalism.

All because the men refused to be civil.

Neither lawyer answered calls for comment or responded to e-mails Thursday. But several e-mail exchanges between them included in the Bar complaints paint a vivid picture of their disagreements.

It started in May 2008. Mitchell was representing a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Volkswagen of America. Mooney was the attorney for the car company.

The two men couldn't agree on the date of a hearing. The first volley came from the 50-year-old Mooney, who addressed his colleague as "Junior."

"Please do not send me any more of these absurd emails. While I am happy to know that you are also the judge in this case, your continued unprofessional & juvenile behavior is not necessary," he writes.

Mitchell, 36, responds in kind: "Old Hack: Your unprofessional and otherwise asinine behavior is not necessary. Learn to litigate professionally and these issues will be avoided."

The issues were not avoided.

This is exceedingly lame.

I love it when lawyers argue about a hearing date, one of those trivial matters that too often serves as the battle ground for practitioners who can't control their ego or id, who have poor self-esteem or anger management issues, or who sometimes are just plain jerks. 

Even worse, writing a snarky, put-down email may allow you a minuscule moment of self-pleasure, but your minute moment of bliss will be memorialized digitally for the rest of your career.

Way to maximize a law degree!

Finally, here's a news flash -- the rich have everything.....except empathy (but you already knew that).

Carry on, childrens.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on January 03, 2011 (boomark / email).