I cover Tax Court. I cover Tax Court a lot. I claim I cover Tax Court like no one else covers Tax Court. So I read a lot of orders, maybe too many, and blog a lot of orders (ditto).

But I read one order today that stopped me cold. It only said “Motion to withdraw as counsel granted.” A hand-stamped, stereotyped, run of the mill, one-and-done, like a raindrop in a thundershower.

The case is Estate of Alvin L. Glick, Deceased, Randal L. Glick, Executor, Docket No. 785-26, filed 3/4/26.

I’ve seen former clients’ names turn up in Tax Court cases, and so stated in the interest of full disclosure when I commented on the cases. But this is different.

I lost touch years ago with Al Glick (“Alvin,” indeed!), but when I saw that caption memory went into hyperdrive. I saw the gesture with the cigarette, heard the throaty rasp again putting out numbers mentally calculated accurate to two decimal places, saw the immaculate suit, tie, and shirt, and the desk crammed with paper where he could instantly grab the one he wanted. And that wonderful line, “Yeah, I went to UCLA…the University on the Corner of Lexington Avenue.” 

Randal, forsooth? Young Randal My Son? Get real. He was always Randy, and in those days twenty-plus years ago it was rarely a week gone by that we weren’t talking. The names and faces were flooding back, the office up the stairs on Third Avenue and the people I knew and worked with.

Yeah, they were tough people in a tough business. But they gave to charity. Bigly. They played hard, but they played straight. Al knew no other way.

They were good people. That’s the best eulogy I know.