{"id":1220,"date":"2023-08-16T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2023-08-07T20:48:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T20:48:15","slug":"rick-bowen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1220","title":{"rendered":"Tribute # 8: Rick Bowen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Bowen\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Upstairs from the Tenant\u2019s Union was the Neighborhood Justice Center.\u00a0 Spencer Blaw (see Tribute before) used to hang with the upstairs crowd as well, playing poker, and this led to my knowing Rick<\/strong> Bowen<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rick, like me, was a brand-new lawyer, having just passed the bar exam.\u00a0 From the beginning I never did any advertising, just a law card that read: “Andy’s Law Office – Where the Meter Isn’t Always Running.”<\/p>\n

One day Spencer shows up at my apartment\/office with Rick\u2019s law card: \u201cCurrently Working the Streets.”<\/p>\n

\"IMG-3395\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spencer says, \u201cMaybe you two guys should get together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon Rick and I met for a beer.\u00a0 Two months later, we rented a University Avenue storefront.\u00a0 Five years later we bought a building down the street and called it “The People’s Law Center.”\u00a0\u00a0Fifty<\/span>–three<\/span> years later Rick and I still office together on University Av., still often grab a beer, share war stories, and gossip\u00a0about the ladies.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2918\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In most ways our politics were a perfect fit:\u00a0 Both with a keen sense for injustice, both believing the rich as well the poor deserve good representation, both honest-types and both more or less tolerant-types.\u00a0 But<\/em> Rick<\/em> is<\/em> a<\/em> Republican<\/em>!\u00a0 A tolerant-type Republican, thank goodness, because “The People’s Law Center” overnight turned into the “Andy Dawkins for State Rep Campaign Headquarters.”\u00a0 In a chapter further on, I tell more about that campaign.\u00a0 Suffice for here, the opportunity to run for office came suddenly and Rick hardly had a chance to contemplate all that might mean, but to this day I love that he never complained about the office all of the sudden having dozens of people trouping through every day.<\/p>\n

Whenever somebody gets in trouble with the law, including myself (a DWI), I recommend Rick \u2013 and always hear back: \u201cHighly satisfied.\u201d\u00a0 Rick has command of every nuance of the rules of criminal procedure.\u00a0 Rick knows which prosecutors, which judges, should be approached which ways.\u00a0 Most important, he is convincing – a great attribute for being a lawyer!\u00a0 \u00a0Best of all, he cares more about helping people than getting paid a lot – most his clients come from the poor side of town.\u00a0 \u00a0And to top it off, he’s got the Emma Goldman thing going – Rick’s the long-time Commissioner of our Rotisserie Baseball League.<\/p>\n

photo caption above:\u00a0 That’s a photo of my shingle facing the street.\u00a0 On the sidewalk it reads Andrew J. Dawkins Attorney at Law.\u00a0 Passersby could see me at my desk just below the sign – a real storefront law office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick Bowen \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Upstairs from the Tenant\u2019s Union was the Neighborhood Justice Center.\u00a0 Spencer Blaw (see Tribute before) used to hang with the upstairs crowd as well, playing poker, and this led to my knowing Rick Bowen.\u00a0 Rick, like me, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3058,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions\/3058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}