Lawyers Of The Year 2006
C. SAMUEL SUTTER
Boston
Born: Aug. 3, 1952; Greenwich, Conn.
Education: Vanderbilt Law School (1983); Brown University (1976)
Bar admission: 1983
Professional experience: Solo practice (1984-1990, 1999-2006), Bristol County assistant district attorney (1991-1999)
Professional affiliations: Bristol County Bar Association
One of the biggest upsets during the 2006 local election season was the victory of C. Samuel Sutter in the race for Bristol County district attorney.
Sutter ousted 16-year incumbent Paul F. Walsh Jr., who boasted a campaign war chest 10 times that of Sutter's. Sutter won the Democratic primary in September by about 3 percentage points in an election that brought out more than 65,000 voters. He then ran unopposed in the November general election.
Political observers in the southeastern part of the state credited Sutter with putting together a winning coalition of police officers frustrated with the incumbent and citizens concerned about crime in New Bedford and Fall River.
When he moves into the Bristol County District Attorney's Office next month, it won't take Sutter long to get his bearings. Before opening a solo practice in Fall River, he worked under Walsh for nine years as an assistant district attorney.
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Q. When you were working under Paul Walsh, was it ever in the back of your mind that you might try to unseat him one day?
A. It was never in the back of my head that I would run against Paul Walsh; it was in the back of my mind that I would run for district attorney, absolutely. I thought Paul would move on. He got off to a very promising start and was very popular in the county. So I thought he would run for attorney general or some other office, and there would be an opening.
Q. Walsh never faced an opponent after his first election. Why did you think you could take him on?
A. I thought it was a winnable race because we have some serious crime problems in Bristol County. We have a gun-violence problem, an unsolved-murder problem, a drug problem in the cities especially. So I knew I'd have a receptive audience. And I knew he had been in office 16 years — that's a long time for an executive. Seldom do you see governors or attorney generals serve 20 years. Sometimes you see district attorneys serve that long, but they are usually low-key or quiet district attorneys, like [Cape and Islands DA] Phil Rollins, who lasted 32 years.
Paul was very controversial, very high-profile. Our polling found his name recognition was close to 80 percent. That's high. And maybe most important, he had a very strained relationship with the police. And I knew all three of those factors when I embarked in 2005.
Q. So what will you do about those crime problems?
A. We need to get much tougher on gun violence. I'm drafting legislation. I think the statutes in place and the state sentencing guidelines for gun violence combine for an unacceptable situation. The current sentences are woefully inadequate. Right now, if somebody is charged with taking their gun and shooting somebody, and they have a minor or moderate record — a category that a lot of 17- to 19-year-olds fall into — the state sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of about five years. If someone takes their gun, aims it at another person and fires, the sentence should start at 10 years. I'm calling for a new crime — assault and battery by means of a firearm, with a mandatory sentence of eight years and the maximum sentence should be life.
We have a terrible problem in this county, state and country of gun violence, and we have to do something dramatic. The analogy I make is to drunk driving. This groundswell against drunk driving started with MADD. They started a movement that reached the public, and when the public started crying out for tougher sentences, it reached the Legislature and prosecutors started enforcing tougher sentences. And we've seen highway fatalities cut from 50,000 to 16,000 a year. That's a huge public policy success, and I think we can do the same thing with gun violence.
Q. With regard to staffing, will there be a lot of turnover in the office when you take over?
A. There will be some. I'm giving every person working for the District Attorney's Office a chance to interview. Most of the people did reapply, we've interviewed all of them, and we'll take a few days to make our decisions.
Q. What would you tell other attorneys thinking about running for public office?
A. It is incredibly exciting. If I had lost the election, I would have looked back on it as one of the most interesting experiences of my life. The array of people I met, the challenges of standing up every day and giving a speech to try to command their attention and enlist their support — it was incredibly exciting and rewarding and I encourage anyone thinking [about] it to take a good strong look at it. The risk is, obviously, the financial risk. In order to win against an incumbent or go in a county-wide race, you have to scale down your practice for a number of months. But it is worth it to have that steady interaction with people looking for something to believe in.
Q. How will your two stints running a private practice influence the job you do as DA?
A. I'm going to try to bring some of the imperatives of the private sector to the public sector. In order to succeed you have to produce. I am, at this point in time, planning on basing raises and promotions on performance, not just longevity. We are going to consistently evaluate everyone from the prosecutors to the advocates to the paralegals to the investigators to the support staff.
I'm dividing the victim/witness [department] into two parts: victim's services and witness services, because they are two very different functions. We need to get those in the witness services department to be trained as paralegals, to assist prosecutors in District Court with things like answering discovery, doing research, even doing basic witness preparation. Sometimes, if you are an assistant district attorney in a District Court, you don't have time to meet with every witness on cases that might go to trial that day.
Q. How about your approach to pleas?
A. In Superior Court, we're not going to bargain anymore with 100 to 200 gram [drug] cases. With the major drug dealers, it's going to be: 'Take the mandatory sentences or go to trial.' With the major gun cases, same thing. … Cases in District Court, we'll have more flexibility.
Q. On a different note, as a former tennis pro you've given free tennis clinics every summer for the past seven years, teaching the sport to more than 200 area youths. Why is this activity important to you?
A. My father grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in New Orleans and had the good fortune to have a public tennis court across the street from where he lived. As a result of that, he taught himself how to play tennis, became the best junior tennis player in New Orleans, earned himself a scholarship to Tulane, reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open and was ranked for five consecutive years in the top 10. He never forgot his humble beginnings. Later in life … he went back into tennis administration … and his mission was to expand the sport's popularity in the schools, which he did by going to the public parks — often with some of the best tennis players of the era — to give free clinics. So when he passed away in 2000, I thought to myself, "I want to carry on his legacy of bringing tennis to public parks." One of the kids who took our clinic is now one of the best players in the state. That is why I will continue it from now until I'm too old and infirm to do it.
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Samuel Sutter on ...
His most memorable moment at law school: Winning a mock trial competition our side had rarely won
Highlight of his legal career: Getting guilty verdicts in 16 of the 18 verdicts I prosecuted in Superior Court
How he celebrates a big win: Going out to dinner with my wife, Dottie, who helps me prepare for all my cases
How he deals with a big loss: Take some time by myself and think about what went wrong
His role models: As a lawyer: Kevin Reddington — I used to sit and watch him when he was on trial; as a lawyer/politician: Robert Kennedy
One thing he would change about the practice of law: All the waiting time that defense attorneys have to endure when they go into the criminal session. The case is called, and then called again. I think that in view of the advances of modern technology, it would be great if we could come up with some way so that lawyers would not have to spend so much time just sitting and waiting.
What he does to relax: I play basketball with one son, tennis with my other son, or read to my daughter.
His all-time favorite film or book: Film: "Chariots of Fire; book: "The Great Gatsby"
One thing about him that might surprise other people: I really enjoy a spirited, lively disagreement because it helps me to find my own thoughts.
What has kept him in the practice of law: I love trials. They are the closest thing to sports. It is a competition: you have to prepare; there are rules; somebody wins; somebody loses. That's why I'll continue trying cases as district attorney.
The biggest challenge facing Massachusetts courts: Too many cases
The most important legal decision of the last 25 years: Bush v. Gore — think about the implications that decision has had for our country.