by Richard W. Millar, Jr.

How many of you remember the television show Criswell Predicts? None? I was afraid of that. I have a confession to make. Not an apology—a confession—there is a difference, although these days the difference is hard to discern. I used to watch Criswell Predicts.

Mr. Criswell, who according to the infallible internet, was really Jeron Criswell Konig or Charles Criswell King, or Jeron King Criswell, but whomever, his nom de television was “The Amazing Criswell.”

And amazing he was.

His show, which originally was designed as an infomercial (long before the word “infomercial” existed) for Criswell Family Vitamins. It ran locally, I think on Channel 13, in the early 1950s but morphed into his predictions. He had a radio announcer’s voice, wore a tuxedo and claimed to sleep in a casket. I assume an open casket, but I don’t recall he ever specified.

His predictions were flamboyantly inaccurate, reminding me in a way of a late lawyer of whom it was said that he “was often wrong, but never in doubt.”

He was more showman than psychic to the extent there is a difference. (I predict that I will be criticized for that characterization, but I digress.)

In any event, I often thought it would be interesting if someone was both a psychic and a lawyer. It would give him a leg up in predicting trial outcomes and might rocket him to the top of ADR mediators. It was just a thought; it never occurred to me that the position has already been filled.

By one Steven Macek.

Otherwise known as “Steven the Medium.”

Mr. Macek is a Massachusetts lawyer doing mostly probate work according to The Boston Globe, although that practice may be eclipsed by his psychic work. He is a “past lives reader” certified by something called the Imagine Spirit Intuitive Arts Institute in Arizona, which according to its website offers “total mediumship training,” and has provided “quality mediumship, psychic and spiritual certification courses since 2001.” I suppose being a past-lives reader is helpful in a probate practice, especially will contests, if you can get by a double-hearsay objection.

Mr. Macek’s alternative career was whelped when he visited a medium in February 2010 and was told that he had “abilities.” Shortly after, he says “things started happening” and “spirits could communicate with me.” He later completed a sixteen-week mediumship course and an eighteen-week clairvoyance course. According to his website, he is a certified medium, a certified clairvoyant, a certified Akashic Records Reader, a certified Spirit Attachment Practitioner and is certified in the Psychic 10 Program and in the Second Degree of the Reiki method of Natural Healing. None of those classifications, I’m guessing, came from the Massachusetts State Bar. There are numerous testimonials, though none of them talk about getting a leg up in probate litigation.

His website also deviates from the typical lawyer’s with its detailed rate schedule, noting that gift certificates are available if you need a last-minute present.

I think he is missing a big opportunity to cross-pollinate his psychic and lawyer websites. If a person could hire a certified clairvoyant lawyer who could not only file a lawsuit but disclose its outcome in advance, the world would beat a path to his door. Even I could predict that.

I have done some research and have not been able to find anyone else who is a combination lawyer and medium. So I guess you could comfortably say,

He is a rare medium.

Richard W. Millar, Jr. is Of Counsel with the firm of Friedman Stroffe & Gerard in Irvine. He can be reached at rmillar@fsglawyers.com.