By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

Prominent defense attorney John Condon and his wife, Joan, were killed in a car accident in Hamburg Wednesday afternoon. He was 86, she was 79.

Colleagues recalled that while they partnered with him, he never made it feel like they were working under him.

"If you thought you were working for him, you didn't get what he was trying to go. He wanted you to have a good life and be a good lawyer," said Michael Taheri, of Taheri & Todoro PC, the firm where Condon last worked before he retired in 1995.

Condon was a mentor who molded young lawyers in the way they practiced law, worked with clients and prepared cases, Taheri said.

"Every aspect of my law practice was predicated on a skill that John taught me," he said.

Taheri said he was Condon's "last disciple," following in the footsteps of numerous attorneys - among them Joseph V. Sedita, John Pieri, Rodney Personias and Joseph LaTona - who were mentored by Condon.

Personius, of Personius Melber LLP, called Condon a hard-working "warrior" with a strong grasp of human nature that served him well in the courtroom and in relationships.

"He was a complete lawyer. A lawyer in every fiber of his being. He was magnificent in the courtroom and incredibly prepared," added Connors & Vilardo LLP partner Terrence Connors, who said he used to skip law-school classes to go watch Condon in court.

Condon was known for representing high-profile judges, lawyers, law-enforcement personnel and defendants alleged to have mob ties, and taking cases involving everything from street crime to white-collar crime, public corruption and murder, friends said.

"The best results for John were those cases you never read about. That was his forte," Taheri said. "If we could work out a case before an indictment or a charge, that was great lawyering."

Personius, who is Condon's former son-in-law, said Condon treated each case differently.

"One of the best lessons he taught me was, ‘Never allow 25 years of experience to be one year's experience repeated 25 times,' " he recalled.

Taheri recalled that Condon would regularly call him in the middle of the night to share an idea so they could talk about it the next day.

"I kept a legal pad next to the bed," he said.

Personius also recalled Condon's work ethic. On one occasion when the two were preparing for jury selection for a case in Corning, Condon was up at 3:30 a.m, taking a shower in order to begin working at 4 a.m.

"It was just an indication of how prepared he was and what a hard worker he was," he said.

Connors said that exemplary dedication explains why he couldn't leave Condon's side when his own son was born. At the time, the two were picking a jury for a highly publicized murder case in Niagara County.

"I saw John more than my son in the first six weeks," he said.

Condon graduated from Albany Law School of Union University and was admitted to practice in 1951. He became a founding member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 1958.

The Bar Association of Erie County awarded him its Lawyer of the Year honors in 1995. He was also named an outstanding practitioner by the New York State Bar Association and "one of the nation's outstanding lawyers" by Town and Country magazine.

 

Fahringer pays tribute to friend

There are a few rare occasions in life when we meet someone truly remarkable. For me, that happened 52 years ago, when I began working for John Condon right out of law school.

It was the best thing that ever happened to me. He taught me how to argue "reasonable doubt" to juries and how to cross-examine a tough government witness. I learned a standard of ethics from John that has stayed with me to this day.

When I started working with John, we were both golden with hope. John embodied all the ideals of a good lawyer: meticulous thinking combined with the steely determination of a true advocate. He mastered the art of cross-examination like no one I have ever known. With that hard voice, filled with urgency, and his dark penetrating eyes, furiously patient, he cast a hypnotic spell over witnesses. He could get them to say whatever he wanted.

In those days, the world of defending criminal cases was gray - half devil and half angel, half dark and half light. John was able to stay on the side of the angels. He moved effortlessly through the darkness into light.

The last time I spoke with John, over dinner, I thanked him for all that he taught me and all that he did for me. John looked startled. It was an emotional moment. With a shrug of his shoulders, he simply said, "Well, that's something, I guess."

In that remarkable television series, "Lonesome Dove," a young man dies after being bitten by a water moccasin. After his makeshift burial, Woodrow Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, says to the rest of the men, "The best way to deal with death is to ride away from it."

For me, that's not easily done. John was too large a part of my life. I can't ride away from that. My world will never be the same without him.

- By Herald Price Fahringer, a partner in Fahringer & Dubno in New York City and a co-founder of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP in Buffalo.