Neil Chayet (1939–2017)

August 21, 2017 11:18 AM

Neil Chayet broadcast one-minute summaries of quirky lawsuits on the radio for more than 40 years. He died of small cell cancer last Friday, at age 78. Obits at NYTimes, the Boston Globe, and Harvard Law.

Neil Chayet did some work on the Boston Strangler case at the outset of his lifelong career as an attorney, but he was most widely known for his daily radio segment, which aired on the CBS radio network.

"Looking at the Law" (podcast archive still available) offered punchy synopses of odd or noteworthy legal cases, each just under a minute in Neil's trademark cadence, invariably ending with a pun or other wordplay. Last year, it reached its 10,000th episode. From the NYTimes obit:

“So Gary’s family is all shook up,” he said near the end of a segment about a lawsuit over Elvis Presley memorabilia. “But for Nancy and her family, it’s a big hunk o’ love.” And after summarizing a smuggling case in which officials in Washington State shipped 5,000 pounds of marijuana into Puget Sound on a barge and set it on fire, he said, “No tern was left unstoned.”

Chayet retired less than two months ago, but was still looking on the optimistic side: "I feel that 42 years is the right number for me and it leaves more time to continue the other passions I’ve worked on tirelessly over the years...My work will now focus on helping people prevent interpersonal problems from escalating, and I hope to distill my philosophy into a book that mirrors the 13-week course I taught at Tufts University last year."

Unfortunately, when Neil hoped to throw himself into his book, the Grim Reaper threw the book at him. And while his summaries weren't cryptic, this summer he's in the crypt.

That was Neil Chayet, Looking... at the Law.

posted by Shmuel510 (7 comments total)

I remember "Neil Chayet...Looking at the Law". It was featured occasionally on WBBM the all-news AM station my dad used to listen to constantly in the car when I was a kid. I'm sure I learned a lot from him, but I can't for the life of me remember as single episode. Just his tag line.
posted by hwestiii at 11:27 AM on August 21, 2017

He was a kind person and a benefactor to a lot of good cultural and social service organizations in his community.
posted by Miko at 2:53 PM on August 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I quite enjoyed his stories. He will be missed.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:52 PM on August 21, 2017

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posted by filtergik at 2:35 AM on August 22, 2017

I enjoyed his radio segments too, although I always groaned at his puns.

Nice close, OP. I can almost hear him reading it. :)
posted by pmurray63 at 1:51 PM on August 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

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I've listened to his radio segments for what feels like (and probably has been) my entire life.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:26 PM on August 22, 2017

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posted by B_Pithy at 4:42 PM on August 23, 2017