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Eulogy for My Father
Robert Nelson Shigley, June 25, 1924 – May 27, 2010
Mentone Community Church
Mentone, Alabama
May 30, 2010
Daddy was born a few hundreds yards from here in a farm house built around a pioneer log cabin.
It was a time before paved roads or electricity came to the mountain.
His grandmother Melissa’s family, … Continue Reading
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery . . .
In September 1995, I explained the Internet ("It was developed for national defense and used to be called the Arpanet"), email and web sites to a couple of hundred lawyers at a seminar at St. Simons Island. Since this was before anyone had Power Point or LED projectors, I used transparencies on an overhead projector … Continue Reading
Neurofibromatosis Research Conference in Florida
Last Monday at Bonita Springs, Florida, I spoke at an international conference of medical researchers on neurofibromatosis, the condition that made my daughter deaf. Other than a handful of patient family representatives who were invited to provide a human perspective, the participants were research scientists and medical specialists from top unitiversties and research centers around … Continue Reading
My daughter
This has nothing to do with law, litigation or motor carriers, but I’ve got to brag a little on my daughter, who is profiled in a Voice of America story, "Inside the Complex Worlds of Deafness and Deaf Culture in America." Conclusion: "We asked her what she would like to say to other young people … Continue Reading
Don’t blame God when people break the rules
Saturday morning, at the request of a patient’s family who urgently want to provide for his care needs, I visited an intensive care unit at Grady Memorial Hospital to attempt to interview a man who became a quadriplegic in a recent traffic collision. Laying paralyzed in a bed, breathing through a tube, he was too … Continue Reading
Sometimes a lump of coal can become a diamond
So often in my law practice, representing ordinary people who have suffered tragic losses due to someone else’s carelessness, I have to contend with the arrogance of defense lawyers and corporate functionaries who view humble working people as most of us would view gum stuck to the sole of a shoe. As a "redneck lawyer" … Continue Reading
On the Internet, but deeply rooted in a web of relationships
When you find a lawyer on the Internet, there may be an inclination to think of him or her as some sort of free floating, rootless organism, taking all nutrition from cyberspace. This week, however, I have had several reminders of how intertwined professional relationships can be.
First came an inquiry about a potential trucking wrongful … Continue Reading
New York judge notes shortage of ASL interpreters for the deaf in court
A judge in Queens County, NY, recently wrote a 13-page order awarding double the standard compensation for a sign language interpreter and spotlighting a severe shortage of court-certified interpreters in American Sign Language for the deaf. He noted that even in Rochester, NY, which has the largest per capita deaf population in the country, … Continue Reading
Eagle Scout
Twelve years ago I took a little six-year-old first grade boy to his first Tiger Cubs meeting. He was so bouncy we sometimes jokingly referred to him as "Tigger." Before that meeting he was literally climbing the structural beams in the walls in the church classroom and tagging the ceiling. The gentleman who was in … Continue Reading
