By Ron Hayes
One day in 2000, a high school freshman from Ocean Ridge decided to volunteer as an “attorney” in the county's Youth Court.
Anthony Arash Arsali would alternately act as both prosecutor and defense “attorney” in determining appropriate sentences for fellow teens who had already pled guilty to relatively minor crimes such as shoplifting and marijuana possession.
A teen who had painted a swastika on a water tower, for example, might be sentenced to watch the film Schindler’s List and write an essay about the symbol’s meaning.
All the defendants were teens, the jury were teens, the prosecutor and defense “attorneys” were teens.
A real judge, Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown, presided.
On Oct. 2, the quotation marks around “attorney” disappeared when Arsali, 22, was sworn in as a full-fledged member of the Florida Bar — by Judge Lucy Chernow Brown.
The young man who went looking for a class credit has found a career.
“Every Thursday night I would go to the South County Courthouse for about four hours, and I got so interested that I ended up doing over 700 hours of community service there,” he recalls.
After Youth Court, Arsali, who moved to Ocean Ridge when he was 12, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Florida, and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in May.
“He was very serious, very diligent and very talented,” remembers Brown. “I would say he did an outstanding job.”
Now an attorney with the prestigious law firm of Boies, Schiller and Flexner in Fort Lauderdale, Arsali is enjoying the hard work.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said during a recent weekend home to visit his parents. “We represent big corporate clients, but also class action suits, so you have to go in-depth about each subject. Right now I’m learning about the credit card system and the shrimp farm industry.”
Among his firm’s clients are the Oklahoma attorney general, whom Arsali is helping to represent in a price-fixing suit against British Petroleum.
“I’ve been trying to come back to Ocean Ridge on weekends,” he reports, “but it’s hectic. The last week and a half I've been working one case 13 or 14 hours a day.”
Nicholas and Afsoon Arsali also have two other sons, Christopher Armin, 13; and Benjamin Aryan, 15.
“I’m so proud,” says his mother, Afsoon. “I tell him that when I walk I feel like I’m a giant because I’m walking so proud. They’re all wonderful, wonderful boys.”
Anthony Arash Arsali was nominated to be a Coastal Star by Ocean Ridge resident and Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown.
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