TRIBUTE TO JUDGE LACKEY
November 21, 2010 § Leave a comment
It was Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City whose refusal to be corrupted and courageous cooperation with law enforcement brought to justice some of the most powerful trial lawyers in this country.
This tribute from the Calhoun County Journal:
Judge Lackey is truly one-of-a-kind
“There are two things you need to be a judge,” Judge Henry Lackey said. “A lot of gray hair to look distinguished and hemorrhoids to look concerned.”
Judge Lackey was speaking to a large gathering at the Oxford Convention Center that turned out to honor him upon his upcoming retirement after 17 years as circuit court judge and even longer as public servant.
Judge Lackey is less than two months away from entering retirement, but one look at this week’s Journal and you would see he’s busier than ever.
He was “roasted and toasted” at the Oxford Convention Center last week shortly after being honored by the Mississippi Supreme Court for his years of service on the bench.
Another reception is planned for Dec. 10 at First Baptist Church in Calhoun City.
This Thursday, Judge Lackey will once again be auctioning off Christmas items at the City Sidewalks Celebration at the Methodist Corner on the Calhoun City Square. Saturday night he is the featured entertainment at the Vardaman Sweet Potato Festival Banquet.
In between all of this he is still managing his day job as Circuit Court Judge for District Three. He’s spent all of this week holding court in Holly Springs.
The honors for 75-year-old Judge Lackey continue to pour in due in part to his role in one of the biggest legal crackdowns in recent history – the downfall of famed trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs and several of his colleagues.
“I’ve received praise and accolades that I don’t deserve,” Judge Lackey told me a few months back. “It’s like praising the sheriff for not stealing. It’s your job.”
Judge Lackey’s “integrity and intrepidness” in the case are well documented in Curtis Wilkie’s new book “The Fall of the House of Zeus” – a must-read according to my wife Lisa.
But as all the attention still pours in, and rightfully so, Judge Lackey still thinks of himself as the simple, “country lawyer” who still lives “within 300 yards of where he discovered America,” and that’s why he is so treasured here in Calhoun County.
A visit with him and you hear no mention of Dickie Scruggs. He talks of his “wonderful upbringing” in Calhoun City, working at his family’s business – the Ben Franklin 5 and 10 Cent store on the Calhoun City Square – and the endless list of fascinating people he grew up with such as Clarence “Dummy” Martin, Ray “Funnyman” Tolley, John Pittman, Mr. Mac, Monk and Big Dog.
I’ll never forget sitting in his office and him telling me of his experience when Robert Wardlaw, the world’s tallest man at 8’9″, visited Calhoun City.
One of the best story tellers I’ve every known, Judge Lackey is always worth the price of admission at any event he’s attending. I certainly wouldn’t let an opportunity to enjoy his tales or company pass me by.
The homespun Judge Lackey deserves our accolades. As it is with Judge Lackey, I hope it will be said of all of us at the end of our careers that we adhered to the highest ethical principles and upheld the honor and dignity of the law.
Thanks to Tom Freeland for the link to this tribute.
JUDGE LACKEY RETIRES
October 5, 2010 § Leave a comment
This from Tom Freeland’s NMissCommentor Blog …
Judge Lackey Retirement Dinner, & request for donations
A retirement party for Hon. Henry Lackey, Circuit Judge of the Third Circuit Court District is being held by the Third Circuit Bar in Oxford on November 4th at the Oxford Conference Center. I’m one of the lawyers collecting contributions toward this dinner, which will also include a retirement gift to Judge Lackey.
Please send any contributions you are willing to make with the check made out to:
Judge Lackey Retirement Party Fund
Send them to me at:
Box 269
Oxford, MS 38655If you send a check, it would be useful to my effort to keep track of donations if you sent me an email telling me you did and how much it was. Send the email to tom (at) freelandlawfirm.com
Invitations to this event will be sent out later this month to members of the Third Circuit Bar and to judges all over the state; if you wish to attend the event and aren’t in the counties of the Third Circuit, send me an email to the address just mentioned and I will see that the information gets to the appropriate person.
Thanks!
[Tom Freeland]
I don’t know how many Twelfth District lawyers have had the privilege to know or practice before Judge Lackey. If you do know him or tried cases in his court, you may want to try to make the event or send a contribution.
I met Judge Lackey back in the 1980’s at a CLE program in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. I had recently finished trying a case before Chancellor Woodrow Brand, sitting as Special Chancellor in Meridian in a trial involving lots of money and a world-renowned manufacturer. At the conclusion of the trial Judge Brand complimented the attorneys on a job well done and took the case under advisement. When he heard that, Judge Lackey raised his bushy eyebrows and remarked with humor and some irony that that sort of compliment was something that lawyers in Judge Brand’s district were simply not accustomed to. We laughed together and swapped tales about practice in our different parts of the state. He knew some Meridian lawyers and judges and asked about them. He was kind, soft-spoken, attentive and humorous, and I enjoyed the little time I spent with him — so much so that I remembered it down through the years.
I ran into Judge Lackey last year at a Judges’ meeting in Tunica, and he remembered the New Orleans seminar and was kind enough to say that he did remember sitting next to me and visiting. He reminded me that there had been an ice storm that Sunday that closed the bridges out of the city so that he and his wife were stranded there an extra day. I had forgotten that. My wife and I had made it out of the city an hour before the bridges were closed.
If Judge Lackey’s long service as a lawyer and as a Circuit Judge were all he accomplished in his career, he would be remembered as a successful public servant. His role in the Scruggs scandal, however, in which he hewed strictly to judicial and legal ethics, and would not deviate an inch from the proper path, elevates him to a higher level of esteem. Not because he did what professional standards required of him, but because of his courage in facing down the beast and bringing it to destruction.
Judge Lackey is a beacon of right shining through the ashy pall that Scruggs and his minions cast over the legal profession and the judiciary. For that let us ever remember him and esteem his memory.
God bless you in your retirement, Judge Lackey.
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