Page 42 - ACTL Journal Fall24

Mark claims that Emma is smarter than he is. Emma frequently tells people who ask if she is Mark’s daughter, that she sure is, but is smarter and better looking. Mark described Emma as a caring attorney who always puts her client’s interests first.
Did Emma ever watch Mark in trial when she was a youngster? She recalls one case she observed during college, but also watched him on occasion in middle and high school. She says she loved talking to him about his high publicity trials, not because she was interested in doing the work herself, but because she thought the work he was doing was so important to the person he was doing it for.
Do they watch each other in court now? Rarely, although there have been many times when they were simultaneously trying cases in the same court- house. Mark does speak with pride of one occasion when a bailiff called his office to tell him that “the jury just came in and I think your daughter is going to hear her first ‘not guilty’ verdict.” Mark hurried to court to watch Emma receive that verdict, which was indeed not guilty.
Emma says Mark does a great job humanizing his clients. He makes the client seem like a person you might sit next to at a restaurant, or might pass on the street, and you feel that in his advocacy. That, she says, is why he is so effective with juries, judges and prosecutors. He does a really good job of making people realize these are just people. He has a great manner with jurors because he is not pretentious.
Mark learned early in his career that if you project that you love your client, the jury will too. “I don’t think any of these people are irretrievable, no matter how bad the act. There is something good in everyone and that’s what I pivot on. That’s where I build the strength to go through this. And it’s as fun today as the day I started.”
Through it all, the Sisti’s have developed a very workable balance for life and law. Mark and Emma’s mother (also a lawyer) divorced when she was five, but the family followed a pretty standard parenting plan for the 80’s and 90’s: every Wednesday night dinner with Mark, every other weekend with Mark, a week with Mark in the summer, and every other major holiday. Mark took this time with his children seriously, and never prac- ticed law when they were together. Emma always knew what Mark did, but work was never the most important thing. Emma says that the time with Mark was special time. He never put work ahead of his children. If they asked a question, he would answer, but the answer was always “he’s just a kid,” or “he’s just a human who made a bad decision. That doesn’t make him a bad person.”
As an example of the work/life balance, Emma points to her wedding to Jeremy Clemans (also a lawyer at NHPD), which was scheduled in the middle of a homicide trial that Mark was defending. Mark told the judge: “we can start the trial, but Emma is getting married on Saturday. I will not be available on Thursday and Friday of the first week.” And that’s what happened. The homi- cide trial was never part of the conversation during that weekend. It was her special time. Then on Monday, he popped back into trial.
Emma tries to do the same thing with her own children, three boys ages 13, 11, and 8. If they ask a question about work, she and Jeremy always answer it honestly. She and Jeremy reinforce the humanity of their clients, making it clear that their clients are just people, that something terribly wrong happened in their lives, and that they should have compassion and empathy for them. The boys know that work is not the most important thing in their parents’ world. Despite grueling work commitments, Emma does not do law work at home, and she tries to never miss an event. Emma has coached all her boys in youth lacrosse, has never missed a cross country or track meet, and is often the loudest person on the side- lines cheering not only for her boys, but for their friends and teammates.
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