Mickey Sherman - Life and Career

Life and Career

A graduate of Greenwich High School, Sherman received his bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut and, in 1971, his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. In May 2005, Sherman was disinvited from speaking at Greenwich High School's commencement due to public outcry from many parents. Mr. Sherman served as an assistant public Defender in Stamford Superior Court and later as an assistant prosecutor, a post he held for four years.

His courtroom and trial tactics have been the subject of feature articles in the New York Times, the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and New York Newsday. In 1986, the New York Times questioned whether he hurt the jury system by hiring a juror from a deadlocked rape jury to sit through the defendant's retrial as a consultant. After the second trial, the Connecticut Legislature passed a statute outlawing the tactic.

Sherman successfully defended a Vietnam veteran in a murder trial using the post-traumatic stress disorder defense. That became the subject of half-hour productions on CBS’s Verdict, NBC’s Dateline and the BBC series, America on Trial.