Book Review
by
John Cottle
Climbing Jacob's Ladder;
A Trial Lawyer's Journey on Behalf of 'the Least of These'
by
Jock M. Smith, with Paul Hemphill
On April 24, 1957, Jacob Abraham Smith kissed his wife and children goodbye and set out for his Lower Broadway law office, scheduled for a settlement conference in a rancorous divorce case. Known to his friends as "Smitty", Jacob Smith was a founding partner of the firm, Watson, Carter & Smith, the first black law firm in Manhattan not to have originated in Harlem. He didn't normally handle domestic relations cases - he was a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney, a trial lawyer - but this client had been a campaign worker in his recent bid for the New York State Assembly and he felt obligated to her. Before the afternoon was over, Jacob Abraham Smith would be lying dead on his office floor, shot through the head and heart by his client's enraged husband. His eight-year-old son Jock would hear the news later that day. He would be forever changed.
So begins the engaging story of Jock Smith's climb up Jacob's Ladder. The first rung, the devastating loss of a devoted and doting father, provides the foundation for this journey, a journey that is at once physical and spiritual, often careening in intriguing and unexpected directions, but always orbiting within the gravity of his beloved father's memory. The ascent begins with stumbles and missteps. Sliding aimlessly through high school, mired in mediocrity and the self-pity of his loss, Jock demonstrates little aptitude for college. When his mother, through an old friend, arranges for him to be admitted to Tuskegee Institute, the small black college founded in Tuskegee, Alabama, by Booker T. Washington, he suddenly finds himself a universe apart from the tranquil Long Island neighborhood where he grew up. So it is in a most improbable place, a bucolic small town deep in the "Heart of Dixie", where Jock Smith began to reassemble the unraveling threads of his life.
The climb upward takes us from Tuskegee to Notre Dame Law School, back to Tuskegee, and finally to the pinnacle of the legal profession and a partnership in the national law firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, the firm headed by renowned Los Angeles attorney Johnnie Cochran. Along the way are stories layered upon stories, poignant snapshots in a kinetic life overflowing with accomplishment. There are compelling triumphs on behalf of life's underdogs: the small group of black tenants about to lose their homes through an unlawful foreclosure; the poverty stricken black woman cheated by a life insurance company; and an elderly local lady whose house was being consumed by termites while a national exterminating company continued collecting premiums on her lifetime contract, betting they could cover up the problem until she died. That case resulted in a staggering $80.8 million dollar verdict against the exterminating company. But while this book is filled with accounts of material success, the heart and soul of its message is the discovery and ordering of a value system where family, faith and service overshadow the drive to accumulate wealth. Jock's advance up the ladder reflects this value system, each higher rung gained through representation of the poorest and most helpless among us, "the least of these" as the title suggests.
There are many tales of courtroom coups and triumphs, but this book is far more than a collection of legal war stories. Jock is also an avid collector of sports memorabilia, possessing by some estimates, the world's largest collection of autographed balls, bats, and uniforms. There are engaging anecdotes of meetings with sports celebrities like Willie Stargell, Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali, a hilarious recounting of an airplane encounter with fight promoter Don King, and an unforgettable moment when he produced for an unsuspecting Johnnie Cochran, a Buffalo Bills jersey bearing the number and autograph of O. J. Simpson (acquired long before the infamous murder of Mr. Simpson's ex-wife).
As interesting as the stories of how the collection was assembled is the purpose to which Jock has dedicated these artifacts. Rather than allowing the collection to gather dust in a locked room, he has used it to further a project he founded called "Scoring for Life", a motivational program designed to teach young people the values of hard work and perseverance in the face of adversity. One can only imagine the amazement on a sea of youthful faces as Jock produces Jackie Robinson's uniform and mesmerizes his audience with stories of the struggles that baseball's first black athlete faced when he broke the game's color barrier.
In this book, Jock has held a mirror up to himself and given us a rare glimpse of the interwoven emotions and motivations that have driven him toward the apex of his ladder. The stories are told in a direct prose that captures the life and spirit of the man and pulls the reader along on a most pleasurable upward trek. When we look at Jock through the pages of this book, we see an immense pride in his accomplishments, but it is a pride tempered with humility and an unyielding faith in a power infinitely stronger than himself. A man of deep religious convictions, Jock does not attempt to hide, mitigate, or compromise his beliefs about God and His place in the universe. Whatever your own beliefs about God and religion, it is refreshing to experience the voice of one who has become so successful, so ready to recognize his own frailty and insignificance in the face of the universe's greatest mystery.
Jock Smith, with the aid of Paul Hemphill, has given us a treasure of a book that is as inspirational as it is entertaining. We are all on a journey, and whether you choose to view it as an ascent up a metaphorical ladder or from some other perspective, we can all learn from observing the progress of one who has so successfully negotiated the rungs of his own ladder. With this book, Jock has demonstrated with remarkable insight how life's values ought to be measured. In a world where money is too often the only way of keeping score and deception seems to have usurped truth in many corporate boardrooms, Jock Smith's words are a renewing affirmation of what is important in life. One can only hope that his message will be heard and heeded by America's corporate and political leaders and that his voice will be with us for years to come.§ § § John Cottle, a lawyer and (sometimes) writer, lives on Lake Martin in central Alabama with his wife Nancy and an assortment of ducks, deer, turkeys, and other wildlife.Send the URL for this work to a friend!
His short fiction has previously appeared in Amaryllis and Literary Potpourri, and he is a two time First Place winner of the Hackney Literary Award for his short stories. Another of his stories is due out this fall in an anthology to be published by Bottom Dog Press titled, Working Hard for the Money: Stories and Poems of America's Working Poor.
He is privileged to count himself as a friend of Jock Smith, having been involved in several cases both with and against Jock. And he can state categorically that he had much rather work with Jock Smith than against him.
Email him at: bama509796@aol.com
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