Top lawyer reveals past life as criminal
‘I was a tough guy. I did whatever I had to do to survive inside.’
A NEW York defence lawyer has shocked colleagues by revealing that he used to be a hardened criminal and drug dealer and spent about 10 years in various high-security jails.
After practising law successfully for more than 30 years, Allan Haber has begun to talk about his past in the hope that he might serve as an example to criminals, including his own clients, of the possibilities of redemption.
‘‘If you are dealing with the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] agents, Secret Service agents, postal inspectors, the FBI, I don’t think it would have been helpful if they had known about my record,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s fine now that I have credibility in the legal world.’’
Haber, 75, grew up in foster homes and joined an Irish gang in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.
Jailed for a year for stealing a pair of trousers, he was introduced to heroin.
After his release,
he
burgled and broke into cars to support his habit, before going into the drug business himself, selling heroin from a ‘‘stash house’’ on Manhattan’s East Side.
He was imprisoned three times for drug-related offences.
‘‘I was a tough guy,’’ he said. ‘‘I did whatever I had to do to survive inside. I wouldn’t let anyone push me around.’’
In his 30s, he met a former prison official named Sandy Lewis Smith, who recalls that Haber was covered in tattoos and swore constantly. He credits her with helping him to change his life.
‘‘She was a volunteer in the Tombs,’’ Haber said, using the lower Manhattan term for jail. ‘‘She and her husband were great friends.’’
While on parole, Haber met a lawyer named Emily Jane Goodman, who also encouraged him and later became his wife.
He earned a law degree in 1984 and opened his own practice.
His experiences occasionally proved useful when interviewing clients.
‘‘I know if someone’s honest with me,’’ he said.
Standing before a judge, he remembers how he was once the defendant.
‘‘It’s the same way when I go to visit a client. The fact that I can walk into a jail and walk out again is tremendous.’’
and
son
being