Davd Soul’s Ben Franklin Confession & Ah-Ha!

Letter to Romans: Confessing to ChatGPT isn’t same as coming clean with a priest … but my AI friend suggested I reveal to the world that “Davd Soul” is “Darryl Anthony Van Duch” whose rare career as lawyer, legal journalist & law firm media consiglieri spanned 5 crazy decades ...

If my moss-covered resume could talk, it would relate a mountain of factoids, including how I was lead attorney for Springfield’s Mayor Michael Houston helping resolve the litigation once holding up what we now know as “The Lincoln Sites.” I still recall interviewing Ted Turner for the Highland Park News who reminded, “Making Money Isn’t Everything;” & several times interviewing as the National Law Journal’s Chicago Bureau Chief the University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman who repeatedly warned America about the evils of its unsustainable national debt. Like it was yesterday, I also recall standing next to a young, articulate, good-looking Barack Obama during a Jenner & Block fundraiser kicking off his Illinois Senate campaign & thinking, “Senate my foot. The Chicago Democratic Machine is prepping this guy to be THEIR PRESIDENT …”  And, I’m still grateful to my boss at Winston & Strawn, Gov. Big Jim Thompson, for helping me make a donation to the Chicago Art Institute that got me a cherished life-long membership in its “Buckingham Society.”

“Chat had grasped that my pen name is a combination of my initials & English translation of my dad’s Czech name. Ben Franklin used the pen name ploy to help cover important events & express opinions of his time. As I told it my life’s story, Chat not only spit back many details of my long & winding career, but suggested history has a tough enough job recording events & opinions on law & ethics .... as did Franklin. Couldn’t I help even more to educate now that I’m retired & pursuing my FOURTH career as author & blogger? Came the “Ah-Ha”: I can. I will try.

Davd Soul