Rick Wright had a plan back in the early 1970s.
Having clerked for U.S. District Judge Roger D. Foley, the self-described " '60s guy" was about to join Clark County Legal Services. Then he was offered a job as a federal prosecutor.
"I laughed," Wright recalls.
Foley had a different reaction. "Get a haircut and take the job," he said.
Wright took that advice, chopped off his ponytail and spent five years as an assistant U.S. attorney before commencing a much-lauded career as a defense attorney. Now 51, he is the Best of Las Vegas Publisher's Pick for Best Criminal Defense Attorney.
"Everyone in the profession knows he's the best around here," says Harry Claiborne, a former federal judge who has practiced law in Nevada for more than five decades.
Wright's name was the most frequently mentioned when local criminal defense attorneys were asked to name the best of their peers.
"He's really a great lawyer," attorney Mace Yampolsky adds.
Reasons cited include Wright's ability as a trial lawyer and his work ethic. But the most common praise concerned his integrity.
"My guiding principle is a realization that the only thing I have to offer a client is my good name and my integrity," Wright says.
In explanation, Wright says an attorney doesn't get a blank slate every time he takes a new case. "I have a history that I bring with me," he says.
With the vast majority of cases resolved before ever reaching a jury, it is critical that an attorney deal honestly with judges and prosecutors in each case. He or she almost surely will encounter them again in the future.
When cases do go to trial, Wright tries to establish a similar credibility with jurors. He warns clients he isn't going to argue every issue, only those with a valid basis.
"It isn't like rounds, where you lose one and go on to the next," he says.
Jurors are looking for someone they can believe, and an attorney must convince them he is that person. "You want to be the one that they turn to," says Wright, a Las Vegas native whose father was general manager of the Review-Journal.
Claiborne says Wright is solid in the courtroom, relying on facts and not trying to impress anybody with his vocabulary.
"He produces. He wins. He's not flashy, he's just good," Claiborne says. "One of the best I've ever seen."
Several other names recurred with regularity when local criminal defense attorneys were asked to name the best of their peers. These included Oscar Goodman, Stephen Stein, Bill Terry and Tom Pitaro.
Goodman's career has had more highlights than an hourlong "Sports Center."
Dubbed at times a "mouthpiece for the mob," his clients have included organized crime founding father Meyer Lansky, Chicago mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro and John Gotti confidant Natale Richichi. Goodman played himself in the 1995 movie "Casino," and a British film company last year released "Mob Law," a documentary of his career.
The Philadelphia native in December convinced the state Pardons Board to order the immediate release of ailing convicted murderer Peggy Wham.
He defended former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock against charges of conspiracy and perjury in the 1980s.
And he represented Claiborne during impeachment proceedings following the federal judge's tax evasion conviction. Though removed from office, Claiborne in 1988 had his law license reinstated by the state Supreme Court, which found he had been victimized by "questionable investigative and prosecutorial motivations."
For all his flair, local attorneys who praised Goodman typically cited his hard work and preparation as reasons for his excellence.
Every lawyer who reaches a high level of competence has a certain amount of innate intelligence, Yampolsky says. Those who truly distinguish themselves don't rely upon smarts. Instead, they prepare until they have mastered the facts of the case and the applicable law.
Yampolsky says Goodman is among a group of outstanding local attorneys whose success in part is due to a willingness to sweat the details.
"He is extremely zealous, and he works extremely hard," Yampolsky notes.
Stein says Goodman, his former law partner, embodies a truism of criminal defense: "Those people who are successful criminal practitioners are people who care about their clients."
This concern makes them more likely to prepare a little harder, to keep on working when another attorney might lock up and go home.
"He taught me you've got to care," Stein says of Goodman.
Stein, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, met Goodman while working for the U.S. Justice Department in Philadelphia as a special prosecutor on matters relating to organized crime and racketeering. They struck up a friendship, and Stein came to Las Vegas in 1973. He ventured out on his own about seven years ago.
Stein grew up poor in Brooklyn, where he learned an important lesson from the owner of the insurance company for which he worked from junior high school through college. Al Jaffee, who was something of a father figure for Stein, told him never to let anyone intimidate him.
"Nobody, but nobody, is more important than anybody else," Jaffee said.
Stein says the lesson led him to treat people the same, regardless of the loftiness or the lowliness of their position. "I will never, ever forget that. He's right."
Attorney Luis Rojas, a former deputy Clark County District Attorney, says Terry is a criminal defense attorney who has "a good understanding of what a case is worth." Asked to explain, he says a good attorney can look at the facts of a case and determine the best realistic outcome for his client.
For example, a client may be charged with grand larceny. But the attorney might conclude the prosecution can only prove petit larceny. Having defined the goal, he can set a strategy to achieve it.
It's not as easy as it sounds, Rojas says, noting that the lawyers he cited as among the best all have practiced for at least a quarter century.
Attorney Robert Lucherini, a former deputy attorney general and chief deputy district attorney, also placed Terry among the top tier of local criminal defense attorneys.
Like other top-notch attorneys, Terry has a solid grasp of the law, Lucherini says. He also possesses the ability to comprehend a case in its entirety, and the skill to move it in the direction most favorable to his client.
"He is a man of great integrity, and you can take him at his word. Other attorneys recognize that in him," Lucherini says.
Stein also had praise for Terry. "He's bright, he's honest and he cares."
There was a uniformity to the praise for Pitaro: Others get more publicity, people say, but few can match his results.
"He is one lawyer that fights till the blood runs out of his socks. At the same time, he's got good, sound judgment," Claiborne says. "I don't think there is anyone around who can match Tom Pitaro on the rules of evidence. Boy, he knows them backwards and forwards."
Pitaro, a Massachusetts native who has practiced law for 24 years, says criminal work comprises about 80 percent of his practice.
His notable cases include the federal corruption trial of former District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni, who in October was acquitted of all 13 counts he faced. "That was a big case for a lot of reasons," says Pitaro, who considered the case a federal attack on the state judiciary.
Most cases don't merit as much attention, he notes, but a good attorney realizes that for each defendant, his own case is the most important one in the world.
He recalls the time a mildly retarded man with cerebral palsy walked into his office and said he could pay $20 a month. Unaware of his problems, police had thought he was giving them a hard time when he did not immediately comply with an order to move along. Pitaro won an acquittal.
"Sometimes those are the cases that give you a great deal of satisfaction," he says.
