Michael A. Weinberg

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s feature story on Novack and Macey LLP partner Michael Weinberg and his collection of items associated with author Charles Dickens appeared in the August 20, 2012 print and online editions. Link. The collection will be featured in an exhibition entitled “Charles Dickens: 200 Years of Celebrity,” opening September 29, 2012, at the Lake County Discovery Museum. Novack and Macey LLP is cosponsoring the exhibit which is scheduled to close in February 2013. 

In addition to enjoying the “treasure hunt” for Dickens-related items,Mr. Weinberg has found a strong connection between his law practice and the celebrated author.  First of all, Dickens’ early life included a brief stint as a legal clerk and training in a form of shorthand that allowed him to access to the courts and other governmental proceedings, including Parliament. Many of Dickens’ characters were lawyers and judges and his books contain trials on civil matters including the breach-of-promise claim against Mr. Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers and the interminable legal proceeding of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in Bleak House.  

Even after Dickens’ death, his unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in 1914 prompted a mock proceeding, “The Trial of John Jasper for the Murder of Edwin Drood.”   The mock court case was presided over by G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw was the jury foreman. 

Since Dickens’s death in 1870, judges around the world have relied on his work and observations, both substantively and metaphorically, in rendering their judgments, Mr. Weinberg said.    

For more information about the exhibition, collection or the legal facets of Dickens’ work,  please contact Mr. Weinberg at (312) 419-6900 or mweinberg@novackmacey.com.