'the law is a nymphomaniac'?

Houston Chronicle:

For octogenarian legal legends Richard "Racehorse" Haynes and Joe Jamail, deciding to stop practicing law would be akin to choosing to stop breathing.

"Stop doing what? This is not work," said Jamail, the cursing, clever, long-ago-dubbed King of Torts. "This makes you feel like you are worth something. We can still do good for others and do good for ourselves. I would wither and die, truthfully. I need to be somewhere where the light's on me."

Haynes, the witty and gentlemanly criminal defense lawyer, recalls the prior generation's legal master Percy Foreman warning him that the law is a jealous mistress "but they don't explain that the law is a nymphomaniac."

"And the law is a nymphomaniac. We all made a pledge that we'd try to help the client," said Haynes, who turned 80 this year and just moved to a new office. "We want to keep helping people."

...

Though the two friends are family men, they also have the blessing and the curse of being defined by and addicted to their courtroom successes.

Neither Houstonian is particularly large in stature, yet both are bigger than life. For years now their presence in a courthouse, even on a minor matter, has attracted crowds.

Haynes gained highest fame in two cases.

He successfully defended Houston plastic surgeon John Hill, who was accused in 1969 of letting his socialite wife die after she was poisoned by pastry he fed her, a tale immortalized in the book Blood and Money. Then in 1977, he also successfully defended Fort Worth oilman T. Cullen Davis, who was accused in a shooting spree at his home that left his wife's lover and 12-year-old stepdaughter dead and two wounded.

Jamail, 82, best known for his 1985 $11 billion victory for Pennzoil over Texaco for a foiled merger and giving away huge sums to charity, is perennially listed as one of the richest men in America.

Seven years before the Pennzoil case, he broke records for settling a suit for $6.8 million that involved a defective gun used in a hunting accident.

The gun eventually was recalled.

"To me, Haynes and Jamail are the same guy. They are self-made men, both small in physical stature with huge egos," said Dan Cogdell, a criminal defense lawyer and protégé of Haynes. "Both got by on raw skills and being great humanists. They understand people. Joe is more aggressive, Richard more personable. But they both know how to identify the person they are looking at and know how they can use that person in the courtroom or out."

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"They are both storytellers. Richard can tell a story in a self-deprecating way and win you over. Joe can tell a story and you want to cheer for him," Mithoff said.

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In addition to the Baytown train collision case, Haynes has recently taken on the case of an infant injured by a nurse. He also recently said no to professional football player Michael Vick, recalling (Percy) Foreman once told him to avoid clients who harm dogs or horses. He also tried a sexual assault case in Georgetown in August.

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Mike Ramsey, a Houston criminal defense lawyer who learned the craft from Haynes, said Jamail is a slasher in the courtroom while Haynes is likely to go for 1,000 cuts, but both will make their target bleed.

"These are the people who put the real imprimatur on the Houston bar as a place where lawyers try cases and don't just settle them," Ramsey said. "Joe has extreme emotional intelligence and can read what somebody is not just thinking but what they are feeling and take advantage of it. And Racehorse, his gift is to bring a sense of confidence into the courtroom, he walks in and has the ability to take over."

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They are both very good. They are also good at getting the jury to like them and reward their clients. If they outcome of a case depends on hiring the right lawyer, it would still be a mistake to ignore either of these guys, if you could get their interest.