Legal Revolutionary
I am very disappointed and concerned.
I hold most dear my reputation; my ethical record is unblemished, and my reputation as an outstanding lawyer places me among the top choices for trial attorneys in Santa Clara County.
I have held Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for ethics and legal ability for 30 years. I have been rated “superb” by avvo.com with a perfect 10 out of 10, listed in Preeminent Law Firms in the United States, received the Women’s Fund 1st Man of the Year Award, awarded Top 100 California trial lawyers by the American Trial Lawyers Association and Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers, and twice nominated as a statewide finalist for Consumer Attorneys of California Street Fighter of the Year Award. I am a former president of the Santa Clara County Bar Association, have served on the Board of Governors of The State Bar of California for three years, Vice President of The State Bar, Vice President of the Consumer Attorneys of California and a member of its board for a decade.
No lawyer comes close to my record of public service and my dedication to public legal education from law review articles to the largest collection of investigative reports of practical legal information on the Internet. In fact, I was the 35th lawyer on the Internet in 1994 according to Yahoo and featured as having a generous and valuable website in Yahoo’s first book about the Internet: Yahoo Unplugged.
I have built a reputation that I cannot allow to be libeled.
I take very seriously a false statement that I counterfeit U.S. currency and carry a walletful of fake $2 bills and distribute them (“The DA and the Prosecutor,” Cover Story, May 5). That is charging me with a federal felony. There is no basis in fact or even rumor for such an untrue statement. This is libel on its face.
Enclosed are five $2 [bills], the type I carry and give out to visitors to my office, serial numbers L18300711A through 15A are for you. They are not fake. This is real legal U.S. tender. It does carry the painting by John Trumbull of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, the original of which is in the Yale Museum at New Haven and which also adorns the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Dan, I have never printed, made or circulated counterfeit $2 bills. I have always distributed $2, new, crisp bills, usually straight from the mint as often as I can get them, just like the five that are enclosed.
I am fortunate to have a print of the original painting by John Trumbull, a lawyer, of the Signing. He was commissioned by Jefferson to capture the visual history of the Revolution. Jefferson actually placed the figures in the painting where he wanted them and Trumbull, painted the faces that he knew from being the son of the Governor of Connecticut and Washington’s adjutant, plus he used his collection of miniature portraits that were his stock in trade.
I have long used 1776 as a logo because, as my website attests, I have great respect for the small group of lawyers who organized a successful revolution against England and launched the U.S.. On a much smaller scale, this is what we do when we take on the largest corporations in significant class actions and catastrophic defective product and toxic personal injury cases. Nobody else in this town every took on IBM head to head for poisoning people in clean rooms. We are just a small group of dedicated focused lawyers that work towards out goal, not unlike the Founders, but at a very different scale. He have a lot of heart.
Using 1776 for my telephone numbers provides me with the opportunity to remind people of our country’s history, something you don’t get a feel for or any reminders of when you are in San Jose, unlike what you have experienced when you are in Washington, D.C. And giving someone a real $2 bill is my hallmark to make the lesson of the American Revolution something they will remember.
You need to come walk through my office to see the collection of prints of the American Revolution. You are invited. But no more $2 bills for you. You are the first person to receive five.
This has to be corrected and set straight.
Onward,
Richard Alexander, San Jose
Thanks for the bills, which look pretty real to us. Metro stands corrected on faux bill statement and regrets the error. A complete copy of Mr. Alexander’s letter appears here.
