- Barry Gorman: [Stuart opening the door is this man is Barry Gorman] Mr. Markowitz, Barry Gorman. Thanks for seeing me.
- Stuart Markowitz: Sure. Uh, what can I do for you?
- Barry Gorman: Oh, we'll get to that.
- [Mr. Gorman looking up Stuart Markowitz's family]
- Barry Gorman: It's a nice family.
- Stuart Markowitz: Thank you, thank you very much. So you have a client with a tax problem, right?
- Barry Gorman: Hmm? Oh, no, no. This is a private matter. You, uh...
- [Mr. Gorman clears his throat]
- Barry Gorman: ...knew a woman back in 1974 named Karen Alder.
- Stuart Markowitz: Yes, I did indeed. We met down in Baja. How's she doing?
- Barry Gorman: She passed away a few months ago.
- Stuart Markowitz: I'm very sorry to hear that. She, she was she was couple years younger than I am.
- Barry Gorman: You and Miss. Alder had a relationship, right?
- Stuart Markowitz: Well, you wouldn't call it a relationship. We went out a few times.
- Barry Gorman: But you had... uh, sexual relations on some of those occasions, didn't you?
- Stuart Markowitz: Excuse me? What's this about, Mr. Gorman?
- Barry Gorman: This is about paternity, Mr. Markowitz. You have a daughter.
- [Stuart has to find out that he has a daughter]
- Arnie Becker: Well, so far this alleged daughter hasn't filed yet. She'll probably threaten to go public to force a settlement.
- Ann Kelsey: That's blackmail.
- Arnie Becker: Oh, absolutely. Look, this Gorman is a bottom feeder. I wouldn't be surprised if he manipulated this girl into filing suit. He may even try to get appointed her guardian.
- Ann Kelsey: So, we're looking at fraud here.
- Arnie Becker: Probably. But they've done some homework. Stuart... You did know this woman? Karen Alder?
- Stuart Markowitz: Yep, I - I dated her for, like, uh, 3 months.
- Arnie Becker: And you did go to bed with her?
- Stuart Markowitz: Yes. It was a casual thing. Well, I wasn't a monk.
- Ann Kelsey: I never said you were.
- Arnie Becker: Okay, the good news is the girl is 16, the most she can ask for is 2 years support until she reaches her majority.
- Stuart Markowitz: What's the bad news?
- Arnie Becker: California child support guidelines state that a child must be supported in a fashion commensurate with the father's wealth.
- Ann Kelsey: Oh, God.
- Arnie Becker: Giving your net annual salary, uh, I could see her going for, what, 6,000 a month for 2 years? You're looking at a $150,000 hit here.
- Stuart Markowitz: If this really were my daughter, why didn't the mother contact me for support?
- Ann Kelsey: Exactly.
- Arnie Becker: Relax. They overlooked one thing.
- Stuart Markowitz: What?
- Arnie Becker: Your sperm count is so low, it can be measured in fractions. Their case is real shaky.
- Stuart Markowitz: Great, that makes me feel really wonderful.
- Ann Kelsey: So, what do we do?
- Arnie Becker: The easiest way to get rid of this: DNA tests. But it probably won't come to that. Look, Gorman is a K-mart lawyer. If I go at him at Warp 10 and I don't let up, I might intimidate him right back into the woodwork.
- Ann Kelsey: Good, because if he thinks we're going to roll over for this kind of extortion, he is dead wrong.
- Douglas Brackman, Jr.: Next stop, the Simon & Catherine Rubin Foundation vs. University of California and Dr. Emily Connor. We're representing Dr. Connor and the University?
- Jonathan Rollins: Yeah. The Rubin Foundation granted Dr. Connor $100,000 to study a new way to save heart attack and stroke victims, she's happy to the project and Kurt Rubin the Foundations President wants his money back.
- Cara Jean 'C.J.' Lamb: Why?
- Jonathan Rollins: He says she's breach the contract by using scientific data from the Nazi concentration camps.
- Alex DePalma: What?
- Tommy Mullaney: Nazis?
- Cara Jean 'C.J.' Lamb: What date?
- Stuart Markowitz: We're representing Nazis?
- Jonathan Rollins: No. We're representing a highly respected scientist who wants to save lives.
- Cara Jean 'C.J.' Lamb: Which particular Nazi experiments is she using?
- Jonathan Rollins: The deco hypothermia experiment.
- Cara Jean 'C.J.' Lamb: Huh.
- Jonathan Rollins: You know where they subject to prisoners to freezing temperatures and monitor the physiological responses.
- Alex DePalma: How many died?
- Jonathan Rollins: About 90 men, but tens of thousands die every month from heart disease and my client thinks you can save a lot of them.
- Stuart Markowitz: I'm sorry, I don't by that.
- Arnie Becker: You're hate to sound crass, but if it meant the life-or-death of somebody that I love dad want them to use the data, it won't change would have to those prisoners.
- Leland McKenzie: Well, I don't think it's quite that simple, Arnold.
- Jonathan Rollins: Come on, Leland, no one's saying experiments were horrendous, but there were 50 years ago. If the data concede even one life today, I feel...
- Leland McKenzie: Now, I - I'm - I'm not saying you shouldn't take the case, Jonathan. And I understand what Mr. Rubin is afraid of.
- Douglas Brackman, Jr.: Is there any possibility of a settlement?
- Jonathan Rollins: So far they haven't been willing, I think it just hoping for the best deal at the 11th hour.
- Douglas Brackman, Jr.: Good luck. And we're adjourned.
- Ann Kelsey: Be aggressive, Arnie, I want vintage Becker.
- Arnie Becker: Please, Anne.
- [Arnie open the door to get to the proceedings]
- Arnie Becker: Good Morning.
- Barry Gorman: Mr. Markowitz.
- [Mr. Gorman shaking hands with Stuart Markowitz]
- Barry Gorman: Mr. Becker.
- [And Mr. Gorman shaking hands with Arnie Becker]
- Stuart Markowitz: This is my wife, Ann Kelsey.
- Ann Kelsey: Mr. Gorman.
- Barry Gorman: I'd like you both to meet my client, Sarah Alder.
- [Sarah meets is Ann Kelsey and Stuart Markowitz]
- Sarah Alder: Hi.
- Ann Kelsey: Hello.
- Sarah Alder: [Sarah shaking hands with Stuart] Hi.
- Stuart Markowitz: Hi
- Arnie Becker: Let's get started. First thing I'd like to know is what you're doing representing a minor.
- Barry Gorman: It so happens, Counselor, that I'm planning on seeking guardianship for this young lady.
- Arnie Becker: You know, the only thing that stinks here worse than your case, Counselor, is your ethics.
- Barry Gorman: Let's drop the animosity, shall we?
- Arnie Becker: You haven't even seen animosity, Mr. Gorman. It's highly unlikely that this girl is Mr. Markowitz's daughter. These medical records from his urologist can attest. You're leveling flimsy charges against a man of high principles... and low sperm count.
- Stuart Markowitz: All right, Arnie.
- Ann Kelsey: She's your daughter, Stuart.
- Arnie Becker: What?
- Stuart Markowitz: What?
- Ann Kelsey: You're the father, I can tell.
- Barry Gorman: Terrific. Let's draw up some papers.
- Ann Kelsey: Look at her. Look at her eyes, for God's sake, can't you see it?
- Arnie Becker: I don't believe this.
- Ann Kelsey: How are we going to tell Matthew?
- Stuart Markowitz: Honey, Matthew's 2 years old.
- Ann Kelsey: I can't just see it now, Mother, this is Stuart's daughter by a previous relationship.
- Stuart Markowitz: Now, wait a minute, we don't talk to your mother now, why should this change...
- Sarah Alder: [Sarah finds out that's not true] He's not my father.
- Barry Gorman: What?
- Arnie Becker: What?
- Sarah Alder: I'm sorry. I knew my mom have been with you. I knew you had money, that's why I came to you. But you're not my real father.
- Barry Gorman: Let's not jump to any rash conclusions here.
- Sarah Alder: He doesn't even look like me.
- [Sarah and Stuart are not related]
- Sarah Alder: I'm sorry.
- [Sarah's leaving and heading home. What's wrong with Stuart Markowitz biologically paternal? And what's the matter with Ann Kelsey? She's out of her mind]
- Stuart Markowitz: I called Dr. Finkelstein. I want that DNA test.
- Ann Kelsey: It'll only confirm what we already know, Stuart. She is your daughter.
- Stuart Markowitz: [sighs] It's weird. I was in that room, what, 5 minutes? Most of which I spent telling myself she was a fraud. And this feeling keeps coming up. It's the same feeling I had that day we lost Kelsey.
- Ann Kelsey: [sighs] What was the mother like?
- Stuart Markowitz: She was... she was nice. Karen. She was... funny. She was smart.
- Ann Kelsey: Was she good in bed?
- Stuart Markowitz: Ann... At that point in my life, if I got a woman in bed, it was good.
- Ann Kelsey: Obviously, you didn't practice safe sex.
- Stuart Markowitz: No, in 1974, safe sex meant not having sex in a moving vehicle, okay?
- [Ann looking weird]
- Stuart Markowitz: Are you okay about this?
- Ann Kelsey: It's not the mother. Or your relationship with her. It's the idea that there is a stranger out there that has some kind of claim on you.
- Stuart Markowitz: She doesn't have a claim on me. She gave up whatever claim she had when she walked out that door.
- Ann Kelsey: She gave it up. Does that mean you can?
- Stuart Markowitz: No. No, I don't think I can.
- Jonathan Rollins: We'd like to find some middle ground here, Mr. Rubin. We've still got a few minutes before court.
- Kurt Rubin: No.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Well, it can't hurt to at least listen, Kurt.
- Kurt Rubin: There is no middle ground. Using my money to legitimize Nazis desecrates the memory of my parents.
- Dr. Emily Connor: And letting people die honors them?
- Jonathan Rollins: Emily.
- Dr. Emily Connor: We have a contract.
- Kurt Rubin: This isn't just about contracts. It's about not forgetting.
- Dr. Emily Connor: This is pointless.
- Dr. David Howell: During 1942 and 43, approximately 350 male concentration camp prisoners were either plunged naked into vats of freezing water or hose down and left outdoors in sub-zero weather.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: To lower the body temperatures to sub normal levels?
- Dr. David Howell: Yes. As their temperatures dropped physiological and biochemical changes were recorded. When they were near death, the Nazis tried various methods to rewarm them.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: What was the so-called purpose for these experiments?
- Dr. David Howell: To find ways to save German pilots who fell into the North Sea when their planes were shot down.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: As an expert on these experiments, so, how would say the Dachau study measures up scientifically?
- Dr. David Howell: The report is riddled with inconsistencies and very likely falsifications. There is no evidence that scientific standards were maintained.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: And what about the man who ran these experiments?
- Dr. David Howell: Dr. Sigmund Rascher was a mediocre scientist. But he was an accomplished sadist, whose hobbies included collecting human skin for riding breeches.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Did Dr. Rascher conduct any other experiments for the Nazis?
- Jonathan Rollins: Objection, relevance.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Goes of the competency of the researcher, Your Honor.
- Judge Donald Phillips: I'll allow it.
- Dr. David Howell: I hesitate to call what Rascher did experiments, he be put people in pressure chambers until his subjects lungs exploded. He also slaughtered men and women by amputated their limbs. To test a medication he claimed would reduce bleeding.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Dr. Howell, if a scientist came forward today with data gathered using methods like Sigmund Rascher's, what do you think would happened?
- Dr. David Howell: He'd be thrown in prison and his data recognized for the garbage it is.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Thank you. Your witness.
- Jonathan Rollins: You say this data is garbage, Dr. Howell?
- Dr. David Howell: Yes.
- Jonathan Rollins: Then how do you explain the fact that it's been cited in numerous respected medical studies?
- Dr. David Howell: The author's obviously only took the results at face value. They haven't done any real analysis.
- Jonathan Rollins: But didn't Dachau data help researchers develop techniques for open-heart surgery and cold water survival suits?
- Dr. David Howell: The degree to which that data helped is highly debatable, Counsel. The majority of medical ethicists agree with me.
- Jonathan Rollins: Medical ethicists degree and that's primarily your field, isn't it, Doctor?
- Dr. David Howell: Yes.
- Jonathan Rollins: But physicians and physiologists like Dr. Connor, have found that data valuable and utilized it in the past, isn't that correct?
- Dr. David Howell: Every time that we accept, the unacceptable, the unspeakable, we bring it that much closer to happening again.
- Jonathan Rollins: Doctor, we don't live in Nazi Germany.
- Dr. David Howell: Starting in 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service studied hundreds of black men with syphilis. They never told them they had the disease. Bad blood is what they called it. And even after the introduction of penicillin, they refuse to cure them. Those men died horrible deaths, all for the sake of a study, a study that didn't stop until 1972, so don't tell me, this kind of thing can't happen here, Counsel.
- Jonathan Rollins: That's tragic, Dr. Howell, but it is not with his case is about. Dr. Connor is not an unethical researcher.
- Dr. David Howell: She is. If she uses unethical data.
- Jonathan Rollins: Or maybe she saw a way to bring some good out of the pain and tear these prisoners suffered.
- Lawyer Neil Robertson: Objection.
- Jonathan Rollins: Withdrawn. I have nothing further.