From Clint Eastwood to Rambo and "The Art of War," Donald Watkins draws on iconic works of art to inspire his reporting on rampant lawlessness at Southern Co.

 

What inspires a journalist to investigate wrongdoing? For longtime Alabama attorney and businessman Donald Watkins, who has become a leading voice in uncovering the racketeering and accounting-fraud scandal at Southern Company, inspiration comes from one book and two films. The book is a historic text on military tactics, which has been applied to many environments outside the military realm. The films, one from the 1960s and one from the early 1980s, are action pictures that essentially focus on the pursuit of justice. Writes Watkins at his Web site, under the title "The Art of War":

My favorite book is The Art of War by the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu (5th century B.C.). Wikipedia describes this book well. I have used the strategies and tactics taught in The Art of War throughout my legal career.

The Art of War is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a different set of skills or art related to warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics.

For almost 1,500 years, this book was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080. The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare and has influenced both East Asian and Western military theory and thinking and has found a variety of applications in a myriad of competitive non-military endeavors across the modern world, including espionage, culture, politics, business, and sports.

The films feature characters and actors who have become cultural icons. Writes Watkins:

I have two favorite movies: The 1968 Clint Eastwood classic, Hang ‘Em High and Sylvester Stallone’s 1982 action hit, Rambo: First Blood.

After a gang of men unsuccessfully tried to lynch him for a cattle-rustling crime he did not commit, Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is saved by marshal Dave Bliss (Ben Johnson) and judge Adam Fenton (Pat Hingle). The lawmen offer Cooper a job as a federal marshal with the caveat that he refrain from using his new law-enforcement position to go after the men who tried to lynch him. But, when Cooper finds that some of the men who attacked him are involved in another set of crimes, he brings them to justice.

Vietnam veteran and drifter John J. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) wanders into a small Washington town in search of an old friend. Rambo is met with intolerance and brutality by the local sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy). When Teasle and his deputies restrain and shave Rambo, he flashes back to his time as a prisoner of war and unleashes his fury on the officers. Rambo narrowly escapes the manhunt, but it will take his former commander (Richard Crenna) to save the hunters from the hunted.

The takeaways from these two movies have inevitably bled over into my professional life. Combined with The Art of War, these works of art have sharpened my fighting skills, honed my ability to focus on the strategies and tactics for favorable outcomes in various legal battles, and enhanced my ability to defeat a host of mighty forces that hinder equal rights for all, fair play in business, and the fair administration of justice.

Our first post here at Legal Schnauzer, on June 3, 2007, was about the unfair administration of justice.  Almost 4,600 posts later, we still are writing about the subject. Some of the posts have been about our own legal battles, but the vast majority have been about cases that do not involve us. We believe in the words of Martin Luther King, written from the Birmingham Jail: "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

My wife, Carol, and I have encountered one judge after another who seems to have little, or no, respect for the rule of law. Donald Watkins has had similar experiences, and they help drive his investigative reporting on the Southern Company story, which centers on what might prove to be the worst corporate scandal in Alabama history. 

Count us as two people who deeply appreciate Donald Watkins' willingness to apply his skills, knowledge, and experience to promoting the fair administration of justice. The issue is just as important now as it was when we first started writing about it almost 16 years ago.