CLIMBING JACOB'S LADDER 

On Wednesday, January 3 2007, my son Greg Jr. had a watershed experience. Greg Jr. a 3.8 GPA student at St. Jude Educational Institute in Montgomery, Alabama attended a lecture presented by the great trial attorney Jock Smith. Jock Smith, a Tuskegee, Alabama attorney is a senior partner in the Cochran Firm. Born in New York City, Jock began practicing law in Alabama in 1977. Before becoming one of the greatest trial lawyers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Jock was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama. Jock has successfully obtained many record setting verdicts and settlements too numerous to list in this column. Two of those verdicts were an $80 million verdict and a $1.6 billion dollar verdict, the largest verdict in America for the year 2004. It was also the largest verdict in American history for an African American attorney as lead counsel.  

Greg Jr. was so excited. He asked me if I knew Attorney Jock Smith. I said of course. “He is one of the greatest attorneys to ever walk the face of the earth. In fact, Jock’s wife Yvette Smiley-Smith was my lead expert witness during my tenure as Utilities Litigator for the State of Alabama’s Attorney General Office. I told Greg Jr. that I had only met Jock Smith a few times but I knew his story. Well I was wrong. I did not know Jock Smith’s story. Greg Jr. asked me to purchase a copy of Jock’s book, “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”. I was embarrassed to admit that I had not read the book. I had intended on purchasing it years ago, but because I thought, I knew the story I delayed the purchase.  

I went to two major bookstores and each was out of the book. I decided to check with New South Books located at 105 South Court Street Montgomery, Alabama. The web address is www.newsouthbooks.com 

The phone number is 334-834-3556.  I knocked on the locked door and a woman opened the door and invited me inside. I told her that I was looking for a copy of “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”. She said that she would have to order the book. Just as she was telling me that she would have to order the book, I noticed a few copies on the shelf behind her. I purchased the book and immediately began to read it.  

I am an avid reader and on average read two books a week. I have read hundreds of books in my life and I must confess Jock Smith’s “Climbing Jacob’s Ladder is one of the best books I have ever read. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to be successful in Life! I am intentionally not telling the story that Jock tells so well. It is a fascinating story. If it were fiction, you would not believe it! Jock is a fantastic storyteller, and his co-author Paul Hemphill is a fantastic writer. I certainly hope that Jock has sent a copy of this book to Oprah Winfrey. 

In the words of my dad, “You must honor the chair whether it is sitting, walking or lying down.”