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In 1970, Peter Fay was appointed as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; he was elevated to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1975 and served until his death in 2021 at the age of ninety-two. WATERGATE Richard Nixon won the 1972 Presidential election by a landslide. The voting public had barely noticed a foiled burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in the early morning of June 17, 1972. Past President of the College Earl Silbert was assigned to prosecute the burglars. The trial commenced two weeks before Nixon’s re-inauguration and led to the Ervin Committee, Deep Throat, indict- ments of senior White House officials and the resignation of a President. Nixon’s best friend and confidant was Bebe Rebozo, President of the Key Biscayne Bank, who came under investigation for any role he may have had in President Nix- on’s re-election. Alan and his firm, led by William Frates, represented Rebozo, who was never indicted, but Alan appeared four times at Senate hearings when Rebozo was subpoenaed to testify. John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s Deputy Chief of Staff, became aware of Alan and his firm. Eh- rlichman was a defendant in a pending fed- eral criminal trial in Washington, D.C. with Judge John Sirica presiding. When asked at the time if he considered himself a criminal defense lawyer, Alan responded, “absolutely not.” He describes his job as walking into the court room and just doing it. As part of Ehrlichman’s defense, the Miami team tried to subpoena Presi- dent Nixon. Nixon was no longer President, so he could not rely on exec- utive privilege. Instead, Nixon claimed that he had phlebitis and couldn’t travel from California to Washington. The team’s requested trial continu- ance was denied by the trial court and Alan was assigned to appeal the deni- al to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court did not order a continuance. Interestingly, Alan recalled that Chief Justice Berger wrote an uncharacteristic letter to Judge Sirica recommending that he pause the trial and do everything possible to make Nixon appear. Alan remembers that during a break in the Erlichman trial, Nixon’s Chief of Staff, Robert Haldeman, who was also on trial, told the lawyers that when he and Erlichman first arrived at the White House, a secret service agent advised them that there was a tape recorder secreted under Nixon’s desk. Haldeman and Ehrlichman then told President Nixon that they were concerned that President Nixon’s leg and knee movements were accidently turning the tape recorder on and off. Haldeman told President Nixon that he should just leave the tape on at all times for historical record purposes. Haldeman remarked that no worse advice has ever been given by an advisor to a United States President. Working on the Watergate cases re-enforced Alan’s joy in doing trial work. It helped him develop a national reputation and get interesting cases. Patricia’s firm won summary judgment in the District Court. Alan was able to get that decision reversed and, when the matter came back for trial, it was resolved. See Rebozo v. Washington Post Co., 637 F 2d 375 (5th Cir. 1981). WESTINGHOUSE NUCLEAR LITIGATION Westinghouse Electric had guaranteed multiple nuclear plants throughout the United States that it would supply necessary uranium at a capped max- imum price; one of them was Florida’s Turkey Point Power Plant. At the time, uranium producers had formed a cartel able to drive uranium’s price unfavorably high, which negatively impacted Westinghouse. West- inghouse had no choice but to default. That default resulted in multiple lawsuits throughout the United States. The 1968 Federal Rules regarding multidistrict litigation were little used at the time. United States District Judge Robert R. Merhige of Richmond, Virginia was assigned the task of presiding over this massive litigation which involved eighteen separate law- suits. Judge Merhige’s Ceremonial Courtroom in Richmond was filled with lawyers and their clients. Multiple tables lined the room. Alan believed the nine-month trial really needed a play-by-play announcer. He thought it would have been a good idea if Howard Cosell had been hired to announce, “Here comes #10, Greer to the lectern.” WINTER 2023 JOURNAL 86 As part of its reporting on the Watergate case, the Washington Post wrote an article accusing Rebozo of converting pledged collateral from his bank for his own gain. Rebozo hired Alan and William Frates to represent him in a defamation action against the Washington Post. One of the lawyers representing the Post was Patricia Seitz, whose first im- pression of Alan was “forked tongued devil.”