Trial Lawyer Talk, Episode 66, with Jim Leach

Scott Glovsky:

Welcome to Trial Lawyer Talk. I’m Scott Glovsky, and I’m your host for this podcast where we speak with some of the best lawyers in the country. Today, we’re very lucky we have Jim Leach. Jim is a wonderful lawyer from South Dakota who really has walked the walk and talked the talk. He’s fought for the rights of Native Americans for years, decades. He’s fought for the right of the downtrodden, the poor, the abused, and he really is an inspiration for all of us. He practices out of South Dakota, but his cases have national impact and are really, really involve lessons for all of us and a lot of insight. So let’s get started.

I’m very happy to be talking with Jim Leach, who is such a wonderful guy that’s been part of the foundation for Trial Lawyers College, and truly a lawyer that represents what I think we all aspire to, who’s fighting to make people’s lives better every day, and has devoted his career to doing this. Jim moved to South Dakota right after graduating from law school in 1975 to work as a volunteer lawyer for the Wounded Knee Defense Committee, a pro bono organization that defended Native Americans that were charged with serious federal crimes after they occupied the village of Wounded Knee for 71 days in their search for a better life. Over the years, he’s done many different types of cases and legal work, including environmental and treaty cases on behalf of Native Americans, and most recently, he’s one several lawsuits on behalf of prisoners. He’s had three successive laws enacted by the state of South Dakota that restricted election rights to be held unconstitutional. It’s really my pleasure to be talking with Jim Leach today. Jim, thank you so much for being with us.

Jim Leach:

Well, thank you for inviting me, Scott, and I hope I’m worthy of that very kind introduction.

Scott Glovsky:

Yeah, well, you are. Jim, can you share with us a story of a case that had a profound impact on you?

Jim Leach:

Yes. The one most recently that comes to mind is a case that successfully challenged the practice of small police departments in South Dakota of forcibly catheterizing drug suspects when needed to try to get evidence of drug use.

Scott Glovsky:

Can you share with us the story from your client’s perspective?

Jim Leach:

Right, I-

Scott Glovsky:

Can you reverse roles with your client?

Jim Leach:

Well, yes. I had six clients in the same case, all bringing the same claims, each arising from a completely separate factual circumstance. But the one client who I think was actually the most important client in the case, because her treatment said the most to the judge about the reality of this, was a woman named Gina Alvarez. I can take on the role of Gina and speak as Gina if that would be helpful.

Scott Glovsky:

Yes, please reverse roles with Gina.

Jim Leach:

All right. Well, I live outside the small town of Winner, South Dakota, and it’s hostile to everyone except well off white people. I know that. But I was with my boyfriend, and we were drinking, and I was driving home, and apparently I failed to dim my headlights at night when I went past this oncoming state trooper. So he turned around and pulled me over, and arrested me for a DUI. But that’s just the beginning of the story, that’s not the end.

Scott Glovsky:

What happened next?

Jim Leach:

Well, I basically started to freak out because I have a problem being in closed spaces, and he put me in the back of his patrol vehicle, and I just … I hadn’t been using any drugs except marijuana, and I just started to freak out. What I’m going to tell you now is not a secret bec