Lawyer of the Day: Daniel Hynes
Young New Hampshire lawyer Daniel Hynes, who is just 27, has earned a place among our Lawyers of the Day for extorting hair salons.
Feel free to use the Power of the Law Degree to ensure that your landlord heats your apartment adequately. But using it to threaten beauty parlors... that's just wrong. From the Concord Monitor:
A Manchester lawyer who threatened to sue a Concord salon for pricing haircuts differently for men and women and then took money to settle the matter was found guilty of theft by extortion.A jury took about 1½ hours to convict Daniel Hynes, 27, on Wednesday. Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Baker said Hynes sent letters to at least 19 salons in the state.
One arrived Dec. 20, 2006, at Claudia's, the North Main Street hair salon owned by Claudia Lambert. In the letter, Hynes said prices should be based on the time a cut takes or on the length of hair, instead of on gender. He wrote: "I demand payment in the amount of $1,000 in order to avoid litigation," according to court documents.
Since he was not representing a client, Mr. Hynes defended his right to extort by citing the First Amendment and the right to petition the courts. We are surprised it took the jury an hour and a half to deliberate on this.
Hynes would have been wise to enlist a female friend to play his client in this fiendish plot. His reasoning comes across as a bit weak:
In one court document, he argued that the price structure that he saw as discriminatory had caused him stress and mental anguish, despite the fact that prices for men were less than those for women. He said he was being denied an "inherent benefit in being treated equally." He pointed to a woman's right to vote and said he benefits from her right, even though he is a man.
If Mr. Hynes is not disbarred, we'd like to talk with him about how we can get a haircut for under $100.
Lawyer guilty of salon extortion [Concord Monitor]










Comments
WOW and FIRST
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:45 AM
Looks like he's got himself into a hairy situation.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:45 AM
Looks like he just couldn't cut it in the legal profession.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:46 AM
Dude
Apparently
Needed
Income, the
Extorting
Loser
Posted by: Acrostic Dude | March 25, 2008 10:50 AM
What, no comments about how he is a TTT school grad of Western New England College of Law? Shocking.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:50 AM
Merely a haircut? Should have thought about brazilian wax--most salons won't do men, but will women.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:53 AM
Another fine Harvard Law grad. No wonder it's dropping in the Vault charts.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:54 AM
He's now represented by a public defender, so yeah, sounds like he needed some cash. Maybe the law school loans and no hope of a job made him snap. Or maybe he's just stupid, which is why he doesn't have a job in the first place.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:55 AM
Douchbagery indeed
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:55 AM
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:55 AM
Can we have a post about a minority lawyer behaving badly or anything about law firm/school rankings? I'm jonesin' for some A#1 d-bag comments.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:56 AM
Western New Englang College of law is NOT TTT. PENN Law is TTT, WNCL is just a decent regional law school.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:56 AM
The Brazillian wax thing seriously pisses me off. I guess they are worried about creeps that will come in and try to get off on the waxing table or something, but those of us who simply don't have the time or energy to shave our bumholes on a regularly basis get shafted (pun slightly intended).
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:57 AM
10:50,
Calling WNEC Law a TTT is *very* generous. There are, after all, 4 tiers, and WNEC, with its tentative hold on ABA accreditation, is lucky to be counted in tier 4. I mean, it's a safety school for NESL kids, and many of those have Down's Syndrome.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 10:58 AM
10:58,
Thank you.
Posted by: 10:56 | March 25, 2008 10:59 AM
10:58, that's a classic post.
Gallion OUT!
Posted by: Gallion | March 25, 2008 11:01 AM
Harvard and Stanford were safety schools for me.
This is what happens when they let anybody play lawyer. There should only be ten lawschools and if you aren't smart enough to get in, then you just have to do something else.
Posted by: Yale '07 | March 25, 2008 11:02 AM
So explain something to me. Had he actually sued and then taken money to drop the suit, it would be a settlement, but having taken money not to file is extortion? What is the logic? It seems that had he actually taken the step to file he would be in the clear.
Posted by: Anon | March 25, 2008 11:04 AM
TMFI, 10:57!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:05 AM
11:02,
Keep 'em coming!
Also, I guarantee you did not go to Yale "lawschool."
Posted by: 10:56 | March 25, 2008 11:07 AM
What is NESL?
Posted by: M Kompf | March 25, 2008 11:12 AM
Bald as We Wanna Be
Posted by: 2 Live Crew Cuts | March 25, 2008 11:12 AM
What is TTT?
Posted by: 1L | March 25, 2008 11:14 AM
think about it 11:04, just think
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:15 AM
11:07 - Actually, I did. I went to Yale Law School in Costa Mesa, CA. It's a correspondence law school and is a sattelite campus of Yale University in Connecticut. It was all explained in the pamphlet I picked up at Wallmart. I got a Law Doctor degree for $999.99 and was even able to take that gunsmithing class at the Warden school as an elective.
You guys should probably check it out. It's a good deal.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:20 AM
WNEC Law's Web site is priceless. http://www1.law.wnec.edu/
Check out the photos they display on the home page. Click refresh on your browser a few times to see more.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:26 AM
Just checked out the website. Didn't I tell you guys that they have Down's. (See Matthew Stillman's photo).
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:30 AM
Hill-Go to Super Cuts--only $14.00 and if you get one of their coupons you can get $2.00 off--more than enough to cover the tip
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:31 AM
Looks like this wasn't the first time.
http://www.wirenh.com/News/In_Brief/attempted_extortion_at_two_Dover_bars_200701161872.html
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:36 AM
All manner of crazyness in Pass-a-chusetts. They need a (much) tougher bar exam.
Posted by: Stop the shenanigans! | March 25, 2008 11:39 AM
From Holly Wunkte's bio page: "Before I wrote my LSATS, . . . ." Comic gold!
Posted by: Patrick | March 25, 2008 11:39 AM
You guys are not only rude to make fun of WNEC, you are also factually inaccurate. Didn't you see the latest Vault rankings? WNEC is number 3!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:44 AM
I go to WNEC Law. Can I work for Cravath?
Posted by: Flat | March 25, 2008 11:49 AM
Guys, does my WNEC JD better prepare me for complex, bet the hot-dog stand litigation, or sophisticated, cross-retail counter transactional work?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:52 AM
You are all sheep.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 11:59 AM
I am glad I am rich, white, and work at Cravath.
Posted by: skyler mandrake | March 25, 2008 12:09 PM
11:52 - Game, set, match. Well played my friend, well played.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 12:19 PM
Yet another reason I have my girlfriend cut my hair in the bathroom.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 01:59 PM
Baaah
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 02:16 PM
from the JD admissions page: "Each year, the Admissions Committee assembles an interesting and diverse class of students."
Posted by: "interesting" | March 25, 2008 02:57 PM
@2:57, "from the JD admissions page: "Each year, the Admissions Committee assembles an interesting and diverse class of students." "
From scratch?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 03:20 PM
These negative comments about WNEC amaze me. Here you have a bunch of so-called "legal professionals" taking an elitist position that all students from one school are inferior. I'm not sure if it says something about our profession or about the people who make up the profession. While, concededly, most WNEC students probably can't get admitted to a top-tier school, there is something to be said about going to law school, any law school. There is something else to be said about respecting your brothers and sisters who are currently members of the bar or who will one day be members. Comments like "Didn't I tell you guys that they have Down's" and "Guys, does my WNEC JD better prepare me for complex, bet the hot-dog stand litigation, or sophisticated, cross-retail counter transactional work?" simply make me realize that this profession, our profession, has a bad stereotype for a reason. There really are some mean-spirited people who call themselves lawyers. I hope one day that these people who write these mean-spirited things have a son or daughter who goes to a lower-tiered school and that you have to explain to your tier-1 friends how your daughter doesn't have "Down's" but, instead, shunned tier 1 schools because she is interested in push-cart litigation.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 04:19 PM
Granted, WNEC is barely a TTTT, and some derision is warranted, but wasn't there an article a few weeks ago, on this very site, about one of their grads who became a bigsh*t tax partner at S&C? How many of you posters are partners at v5 firms? I think implying that their students have Down's crosses all sorts of lines.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 04:24 PM
Comment 4:19 written on a computer at the public library during a break from scouring the wanted ads.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 04:58 PM
4:19,
What was your first clue that lawyers are assholes?
Also, perhaps you are new to ATL, but there are a number of vocal d-bags with serious inferiority complexes here. Hence the obsession with law school/firm rankings and prestige.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 06:52 PM
4:19, if you are still here,
It's better to be a good barber than a shitty lawyer. That's WNEC is a joke (and that's why my kid, regardless of how smart he or she grows up to be, will not go to WNEC.)
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 06:55 PM
Hynes forgot an essential part of prosecuting a lawsuit: The client.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2008 07:19 PM
The lawyer here is a jerk with too much time on his hands.
But theft by extortion? How else do cases get settled? Courts try to encourage settlements, so I don't see this living through the appeal process absent extraordinary facts.
He was definitely in one hairy situation!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 26, 2008 07:45 AM
I was in class with the kid for 2 years. Never brought a book and asked only the oddest of quesitons. It all makes sense now. Hang on, fry-0-lator is beeping....
Posted by: me | March 29, 2008 10:08 PM