Edward M. Genson doesn’t anticipate being in the courtroom on Monday during the closing arguments for Rod Blagojevich’s political corruption trial. Genson says there is a part – a rather large part – of him that would like to slip into the visitor’s gallery, but if things went awry for the defense, it would be too upsetting.
“I think I’d cry,” he said.
Genson was supposed to be the ex-governor’s lead attorney, the miracle worker who, along with Sam Adam Jr., was going to give Blagojevich his best shot at avoiding being mauled by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s prosecutors.
Instead, he finds himself on the outside looking in, with the wheel of the defense being steered by Adam Jr. and his father, Sam Adam Sr. If Blagojevich is found guilty, he may wonder what might have been had he kept Genson in his stead.
Genson resigned as Blagojevich’s lawyer in January 2009, shortly after his impeachment. The attorney’s parting remarks to reporters indicated that he had stepped down because of the uncontrollability of his client.
“I never require a client to do what I say but I do require them to at least to listen to what I say,” Genson said at the time.
But in a recent interview with the Chicago News Cooperative, Genson suggested that the reasons for his departure had more to do with a strain between he and Adam Sr.–– his longtime friend and officemate.
“Our difficulties were philosophical, on how the case should be run, how we should communicate,” Genson told CNC. “It wasn’t whether or not (Blagojevich) should speak.” Adam Sr. declined a request to comment.
Genson says he wishes he were still involved, particularly now that the trial has come down to its final stretch. Even though he says he hasn’t spoken with Adam Sr. since the falling out, Genson is quick to express his fondness and reverence for him.
“I love him to death,” Genson said of Adam, whom he referred to as the “smartest man I have ever met.”
Although the two never officially shared a firm together (Genson partners with lawyer Terry Gillespie, whose son Michael is on the Blagojevich team) they have teamed up together on many cases over the last 40 years. Together, they represent a small club of lawyers who continue to try cases past the time they start collecting their Social Security benefits – Genson is 70, Adam Sr. is 74.
Privately, legal observers say they’ve noticed Adam losing a step in recent years. There have moments in which he has seemed lost at times in the Blagojevich case, including his objection riddled cross-examination of racetrack owner John Johnston.
Both Genson and Adam Sr. grew up as part of a generation of Chicago lawyers that shaped their careers in the county courthouse at 26th and California during the tumultuous 1960s.
“That entire group of lawyers came of age essentially during the war on the court, and the change to so much constitutional law,” said attorney Daniel Coyne, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. “So they were riding a wave at that time. They had things to do and motions to bring that had never been allowed before.”
Genson says one of the highlights of his legal career was his work alongside Adam Sr. and others defending black civil rights leaders on Chicago’s West Side, who had been arrested for rioting, following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
After Genson’s departure from the Blagojevich case, Adam Sr.–or “coach” as the ex-governor referred to him last week–took over as lead counsel.
Genson also shares kind words for Adam Jr., to whom he served as a mentor. Adam Jr. is tasked with delivering closing arguments for Blagojevich.
It was Genson who tapped Adam Jr. to deliver the summation in the R. Kelly child-pornography case three years ago. Although he says he was pleased with the result, Genson says that “80 percent” of the reason he gave the then 35-year-old attorney the opportunity was as a favor to his father.
After that acquittal, the younger Adam saw his star ascend, with many subsequent media accounts crediting his final words for getting Kelly off. “It is a little simplistic,” says former Cook County state’s attorney Dick Devine, noting that the prosecution’s allege victim with uncooperative. Adam Jr. himself has credited Genson with laying the groundwork for success in the case by picking a good jury.
Genson said that he looked for young jurors in the Kelly trial, and thought that Adam Jr. might better connect to them in the defense’s summation. While the defense team has called on some outside help in the course of the Blagojevich trial –- asking noted attorney Marc Martin to handle its jury instruction requests last week –- it has not called on the expertise of Genson at any point.
Genson remains uncertain whether or not the frost will thaw between he and Adam Sr. after the trial.
“I have no lack of respect for Sam,” he says. “We’re just not so friendly of late.”
Tags: Blagojevich Trial, corruption, Dick Devine, Ed Genson, Patrick Fitzgerald, Rod Blagojevich, Sam Adam Jr., Sam Adam Sr.
