In honor of a good friend lost today . . .

[AuroraHawk]

I learned earlier today that a fellow University of Iowa Law School classmate and good friend lost his battle with alcoholism this morning. I'm thinking that very few people on this Board knew Tom or, more importantly, his involvement with respect to "taking down" El Chapo. His role in the investigation and efforts towards trying to prosecute El Chapo essentially led to Tom's alcoholism and ultimate death. For anyone who is interested, this is some good reading. With a heavy heart right now, I post this link in his honor:

After El Chapo

Federal prosecutor Tom Shakeshaft ’89 helped take down one of the world’s most notorious drug lords. Now he’s fighting to recover from the aftermath.

dartmouthalumnimagazine.com

A podcast where you can hear Tom getting interviewed: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcast...s/star-witnesses-against-el-chapo-rerun-rerun

 

[GOHOX69]

Bit before my time but a hearty wave to my fellow Boyd Building fungus sniffer. Ironically, I am meeting with the Iowa Law Alumni Association in 30 min.

 

[ConvenientParking]

Sorry to hear it OP, thanks for sharing his story.

 

[QChawks]

wow, quite a life he led.
Crazy what some men will do to risk it all for what they believe is right.

 

[littlez]

I learned earlier today that a fellow University of Iowa Law School classmate and good friend lost his battle with alcoholism this morning. I'm thinking that very few people on this Board knew Tom or, more importantly, his involvement with respect to "taking down" El Chapo. His role in the investigation and efforts towards trying to prosecute El Chapo essentially led to Tom's alcoholism and ultimate death. For anyone who is interested, this is some good reading. With a heavy heart right now, I post this link in his honor:

After El Chapo

Federal prosecutor Tom Shakeshaft ’89 helped take down one of the world’s most notorious drug lords. Now he’s fighting to recover from the aftermath.

dartmouthalumnimagazine.com

A podcast where you can hear Tom getting interviewed: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcast...s/star-witnesses-against-el-chapo-rerun-rerun

What a story. The pressure has to be tremendous. Sorry to hear Aurora.

 

[Fan In Black]

sorry for your loss. He did great things in life.

 

[McLovin32]

Sorry for your loss, OP and thanks for sharing that.

 

[Kinnick.At.Night]

Bravery is a quality that I admire more than almost all others in people. He obviously had a great deal of it. RIP to your friend.

 

[Obviously Oblivious]

So sorry for the loss of your friend, he did some amazing work before passing. Thoughts and prayers to all of his family and friends.

 

[BelemNole]

Suck, sorry OP.

 

[nu2u]

Sorry to hear this. The legal profession is highly stressful to begin with.... I can't imagine the added pressure of dealing with a very high profile case. Alcoholism and the use of anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications is widespread among attorneys.

Almost all state and local bar associations now make resources available to those who are stuggling. Most cope the best they can and soldier on. Still, many fall through the cracks. I found out a couple of months ago that a classmate who graduated near the top of his class and then went on to a become a successful corporate attorney was found dead in a California parking lot late last year - close to broke. He overdosed.

 

[OutbackBowl2017]

Sorry to hear the loss of your friend. Condolences.

Amazing story but I’ll never understand putting more energy into your work than your kids at such a young age. I work hard but always put my kids first when it came time to parenting and being involved in their lives. I think he turned to alcohol to ease his pain not being there for his wife and kids. And ultimately cost him his life. So sad. Sounds like he was a great working man. Family man, not so much.

 

[AuroraHawk]

Sorry to hear this. The legal profession is highly stressful to begin with.... I can't imagine the added pressure of dealing with a very high profile case. Alcoholism and the use of anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications is widespread among attorneys.

Almost all state and local bar associations now make resources available to those who are stuggling. Most cope the best they can and soldier on. Still, many fall through the cracks. I found out a couple of months ago that a classmate who graduated near the top of our class and then went on to a become a successful corporate attorney was found dead in a California parking lot late last year - close to broke. He overdosed.

I'm not going to get into specifics but Tom struggled mightily to "beat the beast." He was trying to get well and wanted to help others deal with the disease. He told me many times that the rate of alcoholism in our profession ranges somewhere around 25%-30%.

The stories he shared about the investigation were mind-blowing.

Over the last year, he shared with me that - through contacts he made at a high end rehab facility - two well-known individuals in Hollywood were talking about turning the story into a movie. He jokingly referred to it as "Narcos Meets Field of Dreams." Whenever he brought it up, I made him promise that any such movie would have a happy ending . . . alas . . . ugh.

 

[rchawk]

wow, quite a life he led.
Crazy what some men will do to risk it all for what they believe is right.

He left his mark for his life, did some great work.

 

[AuroraHawk]

Sorry to hear the loss of your friend. Condolences.

Amazing story but I’ll never understand putting more energy into your work than your kids at such a young age. I work hard but always put my kids first when it came time to parenting and being involved in their lives. I think he turned to alcohol to ease his pain not being there for his wife and kids. And ultimately cost him his life. So sad. Sounds like he was a great working man. Family man, not so much.

Tom certainly was not without flaws (are any of us?) but your assessment is an over-simplification.

 

[OutbackBowl2017]

Tom certainly was not without flaws (are any of us?) but your assessment is an over-simplification.

I agree, we all have our flaws. I’m just making a generalization about people that can’t find the work/life/family balance is all I’m trying to say. It ran in his family and is a very hard disease to overcome. My apologies.

 

[win4jj]

Alcoholism sucks. Sorry for your loss OP.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

Sorry man. Also his story could made into a movie

 

[billanole]

Tough story. Sorry to hear about how he couldn’t break the addiction, but he did fight good fights.