One of the joys of old age is finding pleasure in small moments. One of the pleasures of recovering from a cold is being able to enjoy a book without guilt. I enjoy Mr. Grisham, and got a kick out of a legal reference in his latest, Sycamore Row, which is a return to Jake, the attorney played by Mr. McConaughey, many years ago, back before he won the Oscar. What was the reference? Earwigging the chancellor is a violation of legal ethics.
Mississippi has courts of chancery, over which a chancellor presides, to try issues of estates, divorce, etc. Earwigging means talking to the chancellor outside of court to influence his or her actions. It's unique to MS. Only after I enjoyed a long hearty laugh at the phrase did I research and find that I should have previously seen it mentioned last fall on Volokh.com, where it came up in reference to the trial of Richard Scruggs, the MS lawyer who sued over tobacco and later pled guilty of corrupting a judge.
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