Salto, Dianne D. Atty.

Galahad Pe
Benito

CHAPTER III: The Lawyer

Teresa Padro was a young woman who worked as a clothing buyer for a chain of national
discount stores. She travels a lot and worked late. One night at the bar, two other men got
interested in her and they started asking Teresa questions which she finds flirtatious. She
happened to glance at another man wearing expensive suit. She can identify how expensive the
suit the man was wearing and she said to herself that he was kind of interesting. She heard his
voice and she turned around only to find out it was the man with expensive suit. She
approached him and he told her his name was Jan Schlichtmann. He said he was a lawyer. The
two get well along with each other. Teresa finds Jan as a self-centered person because he is very
generous and he feels guilty about it.
As a youth Jan had not thought highly of the legal profession. He ran into an insurance
company for work. He got married and he was unhappy with his career and lovelife. While at
this stage, Jan began to think about another career that would make him happy. He became the
Director of American Civil Union Liberties. He took his first case about a group of nuns and
welfare of mothers. Working on this case, he experienced a profound revelation of the injustices
in the society. He also saw the lawyering was not all about wills, divorced and criminal matters.
He then applied to law school and Cornell accepted him. Confused on what field hell be
focusing, he decided on a job with a small Washington, D.C. law firm that specialized in
dealing with Federal Communications Commission. One day, his law professor called him and
asked if he is interested with this job in House Select Committee Assassinations. Jan asked the
firm for a years leave of absence but he ended up resigning from the firm. His lawyering life
just started and it also seems like going down the hill because he ended up being in debt. One
day, a man walked into his office and asked Jan if he will take the case. Jan accepted it. He
accepted also the case of Lowell Eaton and he was able to get a large settlement for the case. He
started sending out letters to big law firms. Out of luck, he landed a major case of Piper Arrow.
Reed reached out to Jan and the latter was wondering why would Reed called up him. While
having lunch, Reed told him that he is representing the other two passengers of Piper Arrow
case and it would be better if he alone could handle the case. Jan did not heed to Reeds request
and insisted that they should work together. Jans determination amazed Reed and the firm.
This was the beginning of Jans career as a lawyer for the victims of injuries. One of the firms
partner, Mulligan, then finds Jan as a perfect lawyer to handle the case of Woburn. Jan was
interested and accepted the case. Along time, he realized that the cases files was just as short as
an inch and he could do anything about the case with those files. Everything seemed like a
puzzle for Woburn case. They had to find out everything and to established a link that the TCE
found in Wells G and H were the primary cause of childhood leukemia in East Woburn. He
almost gave up the case because one of the lawyers in the firm regarded the case as a black
hole. Conway was with Jan in every case he handles at the firm and he insisted Jan not to
pursue the case of Woburn. On the day that Jan will finally drop the case, at the meeting of
families, he was swayed by Reverend Young that he knew someone who would finance the case
and would help him. It was Roisman of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and he knew the firm.
Jan and Roisman worked hard to finally pursue the case of Woburn. Eight days before the
statute of limitations expired, they finished the complaint and Jan handed the complaint to
Superior Court in Boston and filed it.