Daniel R. White

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This article is about the lawyer-writer-humorist. For other people with the same name, see Danny White (disambiguation).
Daniel R. White
Daniel R. White

Daniel R. White (b. August 2, 1953, Atlanta, Georgia) is an American lawyer, writer, editor, humorist, legal writing instructor, and public speaker. He is best known as the author of The Official Lawyer’s Handbook,[1] a satire of the legal profession.

White has written other books of legal humor, including White’s Law Dictionary, which was a parody of Black's Law Dictionary,[2] and he edited Trials and Tribulations – An Anthology of Appealing Legal Humor.[3] These fostered White’s reputation as a legal humorist, leading The American Lawyer magazine to label him "the official lawyer’s comedian,"[4] and The Washington Post to call him the "legal profession’s court jester."[5]

[edit] Background

White graduated from The Westminster Schools[6] in Atlanta, Georgia. He obtained a B.A. in Government from Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude in 1975.

After college, White worked in Seoul, Korea, where he wrote travel articles published by the Korea National Tourism Corporation (later renamed the Korea Tourism Organization).[7]

White attended Columbia Law School, where he obtained a J.D. in 1979. He served as Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review,[8] which published his first legal writing, "Pacifica Foundation v. FCC: ‘Filthy Words,’ the First Amendment, and the Broadcast Media,"[9] during White’s second year. That article, which discussed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on comedian George Carlin’s famous "Seven Dirty Words" monologue,[10] was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a related ruling.[11]

At Columbia, White was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar and the recipient of the Archie O. Dawson Advocacy Award, which carried a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

White served as law clerk to the Hon. Thomas A. Flannery,[12] a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and then practiced law in Washington, D.C., at Hogan & Hartson, an international law firm that now has over 1,000 lawyers and that at one time was the home of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. White later practiced with the firm of Ross, Dixon & Masback, now known as Ross, Dixon & Bell.[13] For approximately one year he worked as a legal business consultant, serving primarily corporate law departments, at the accounting and consulting firm of Arthur Andersen.

[edit] Writing and Speaking

White has appeared as a legal humorist on NPR and CNN and was the subject of articles in the New York Times,[14]The Washington Post,[15] Time magazine,[16] and the International Herald Tribune.[17] As a result he came into demand as a public speaker and corporate entertainer, and he has addressed law firms, bar associations, medical conventions and other gatherings across the United States and abroad.[18][19]

White served as Editor-in-Chief of Current Comedy, a twice-monthly "Humor Service for Public Speakers & Business Executives"[20] founded by former television gag writer and presidential speechwriter Robert Orben. White’s parody of Ernest Hemingway's writing style appeared in The Best of Bad Hemingway, an anthology.[21]

White has also served as a legal writer and legal editor of serious publications. At the New York Law Publishing Company, where he worked from 1994 to 1996, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Law Firm Partnership and Benefits Report, and as managing editor of Employment Law Strategist and Marketing for Lawyers. [22] At the New York Law Publishing Company he also wrote and edited material for the National Law Journal.[23]

White has written articles for such other professional publications as the American Bar Association Journal,[24] and Of Counsel.[25] In addition, he has written law-related articles for such non-professional publications as Cosmopolitan magazine,[26] and Medical Meetings.[27]

Finally, White’s book What Lawyers Do – And How To Make Them Work for You[28] was a light-in-tone but essentially substantive guide to selected areas of consumer law, such as divorce, wills, setting up a business, and buying and selling real estate.

Contrasting himself with lawyers who ridicule the legal profession with "lawyer jokes"[29] and engage in "lawyer bashing,"[30] White has said his jabs are soft-gloved and affectionate, because he is "a member of that union,"[31] being a lawyer himself and coming from a family of lawyers. White’s relatives who are (or were) lawyers include: a brother, Benjamin T. White;[32] his father, Edward S. White; his grandfather, B.B. Taylor; two uncles, B.B. Taylor, Jr., and John Taylor; an aunt, Mary White; and his cousins, Lee White,[33] Steve White, Jr., Steve White III, John White, and Amy White.[34]

White’s first book, The Official Lawyer’s Handbook, ranked No. 1 on The Washington Post best-seller list,[35] and No. 5 on the Publishers Weekly national best-seller list.[36] This book was released in revised form in Britain, with Philip R. Jenks as co-author.[37] White now lives in Los Angeles, California, where he works as a freelance writer and editor. He also serves on the faculty of the Professional Education Group,[38] a Minneapolis-based provider of CLE (continuing legal education) programs across the United States, for which he serves as a legal writing instructor and legal humorist.

[edit] References

  1. ^ White, D. Robert, The Official Lawyer’s Handbook (1983). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-53137-9. White wrote this book under the pen name D. Robert White. He has said he did this to maintain "plausible deniability."
  2. ^ White, D. Robert, White’s Law Dictionary (1985). New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-38259-0. As with The Official Lawyer’s Handbook, White authored this book under the pen name D. Robert White.
  3. ^ White, Daniel R., Trials and Tribulations – An Anthology of Appealing Legal Humor (1989). New York: Plume, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. ISBN0-452-26558-4.
  4. ^ Goldner, D., "The Official Lawyer’s Comedian," The American Lawyer, p. 106 (April 1984).
  5. ^ Torry, S., "Legal Profession’s Court Jester Sees No Bar to Humor," The Washington Post (199_)
  6. ^ The Westminster Schools
  7. ^ See, e.g., White, D., "A Young American Visits Pan Mun Jom," Korea Calling, Vol. XV, No. 5 (May 1976); White, D., "Korea Not America," The Korea Herald (February 8, 1976). Goldner, D., "The Official Lawyer’s Comedian," The American Lawyer, p. 107 (April 1984).
  8. ^ See masthead, Columbia Law Review (1978-79 academic year).
  9. ^ White, D., 78 Columbia Law Review, No. 1 (Jan. 1978), p. 164.
  10. ^ See Pacifica Foundation v. FCC, 556 F.2d 9 (D.C. Cir. 1977).
  11. ^ Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Serv. Comm’n., 447 U.S. 530, fn. 2 (Mr. Justice Stevens, concurring) (1980).
  12. ^ Judge Flannery is now retired.
  13. ^ Ross, Dixon & Bell, LLP
  14. ^ Mansnerus, L., "Lawyers Aren’t So Bad, Really, Says a Humorist, With a Laugh," in "Conversations/Dan White," The New York Times, August 8, 1993.
  15. ^ Krucoff, C., "Objection Sustained!" The Washington Post, November 9, 1983.
  16. ^ "Lawyer Mocking," Time, Vol. 122, No. 22, November 21, 1983.
  17. ^ "American Topics – Lawyer’s Handbook," International Herald Tribune, Nov. 12-13, 1983.
  18. ^ Mansnerus, L., "Lawyers Aren’t So Bad, Really, Says a Humorist, With a Laugh," in "Conversations/Dan White," The New York Times, August 8, 1993; Goldner, D., "The Official Lawyer’s Comedian," The American Lawyer, p. 106 (April 1984).
  19. ^ Daniel R. White, Esq. - Professional Education Group, Inc
  20. ^ See, e.g., Current Comedy, Vol. 36, No. 19 (Wilmington, DE: Oct. 4, 1993).
  21. ^ White, D., "Across the Mall and Into the White House," The Best of Bad Hemingway, with an Introduction by George Plimpton, p. 115, New York: Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1989). ISBN 0-15-611861-0.
  22. ^ See, e.g., Law Firm Partnership and Benefits Report (published by Leader Publications, A Division of the New York Law Publishing Co.), Vol. 1, No. 12 (January 1996).
  23. ^ See, e.g., White, D., "An Ode to Litigation," The National Law Journal (Feb. 13, 1989).
  24. ^ White, D., "America’s Most Wanted," American Bar Association Journal, p. 92 (October 1989); also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bar_Association
  25. ^ See, e.g., White, D., "Management Forum: Common Mistakes in Associate Training," Of Counsel – The Legal Practice Report, Vol. 7, No. 20 (Oct. 17, 1988), p. 4; http://www.aspenpublishers.com/product.asp?catalog_name=Aspen&product_id=SS07303815&cookie%5Ftest=1
  26. ^ White, D., "How To Find a Good Divorce Lawyer," p._, Cosmopolitan (199_).
  27. ^ See, e.g., White, D., "Who Let Them In? Lawyers v. Doctors," Medical Meetings, Vol. 15, No. 2 (March/April 1988); http://meetingsnet.com/medicalmeetings/
  28. ^ Published in 1987. New York: E.P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-24478-6.
  29. ^ Mansnerus, L., "Lawyers Aren’t So Bad, Really, Says a Humorist, With a Laugh," in "Conversations/Dan White," The New York Times, August 8, 1993.
  30. ^ Ringle, K., "Wit of Habeas Corpus – Throwing the Books at the Barrister," The Washington Post (August 30, 1989), p. B1.
  31. ^ Mansnerus, L., "Lawyers Aren’t So Bad, Really, Says a Humorist, With a Laugh," in "Conversations/Dan White," The New York Times, August 8, 1993.
  32. ^ Benjamin T. White is currently a partner at the Atlanta, Georgia law firm of Alston & Bird.
  33. ^ Lee White is currently a name partner at the Hopkinsville, Kentucky law firm of White, White & Crenshaw.
  34. ^ See White, D., Still The Official Lawyer’s Handbook, Dedication page. New York: Plume, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. 1991. ISBN 0-452-26694-7. Goldner, D., "The Official Lawyer’s Comedian," The American Lawyer, p. 107 (April 1984).
  35. ^ The Washington Post, 1984.
  36. ^ Publishers Weekly (____ 1984).
  37. ^ White, D. & Philip Jenks, The Official Lawyer’s Handbook (Harriman House 1992). ISBN 1-897597-00-2. This edition was revised for a British audience, substituting local geographic, political and professional references where appropriate.
  38. ^ www.proedgroup.com