How to know if you are a criminal defense lawyer
I am back from taking a long weekend to go bass fishing. Before I left I talked with friend who was heading to the annual Rusty Duncan Seminar sponsored by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (who have a newly popularly elected president BTW). He was not enthusiastic - mainly because he's not too enamored with the new group of lawyers coming into criminal defense work. That got me to thinking about what it takes to be a good criminal defense lawyer - and what are the wrong reasons for getting into this type of work.
I know what is referring to. Working on post-conviction cases, as well as working with the Innocence Project of Texas, I get a chance to autopsy cases that have gone bad. Too often there was no reason for the case to end up with a guilty verdict. Sure, there are cases where the lawyer did everything possible, and lost. If that hasn't happened to you, you just graduated from law school. Many times though there was a lot that could have been. It's easy to identify the good lawyers - they are usually the ones that tell you they are willing to do whatever they can to help, and don't mind admitting where they could have done things differently (again, if you tried a case and didn't criticize yourself at the end you just got out of law school, or never tried a case). If the lawyer tell you they did everything they could - they probably didn't.
Others have commented on the marketing push - including the need to use social media. For some, criminal defense work is an afterthought - something basically chosen by default. Their goal is to make as much as money as possible, and clients are merely an end to that. For those, I can save you the trouble. You are never going to become rich as a criminal defense lawyer.
If you have been around for awhile, think about the really good criminal lawyers you have seen; how many of them for wealthy. Sure there are some who achieve fame and fortune, but the odds of doing that are probably less than a high school football player going on to become an NFL superstar. There are many good lawyers who make a decent living, but also many who barely scrape by.
Why is that? After all, we are always taught that hard work and expertise lead to success. I believe there are several answers - the most basic being one how you define success. As I started getting older, I realized that success is not related to your income. Rather, success is doing something you enjoy doing, and doing it well. If you don't really enjoy criminal defense - which means enjoying working with your clients - you shouldn't do it.
There are other reasons - ones I learned the hard way. Running and managing a law practice, and actually practicing law are two entirely different things. I am terrible at running a practice - which includes marketing - and for that reason have always struggled. You can't emphasize management over the actual practice of law, but you can't ignore it either. I'm still working on that.
Another reason is that good criminal defense lawyers are advocates - they don't like seeing people screwed around by the system. sometimes those people have money, often they do not. I don't know any good criminal defense lawyer who doesn't take cases from time to time for reduced fees, or no fee. They take things personally, and aren't going to stand on the sidelines. Unfortunately, your landlord, family and all the others who rely on you don't run on good intentions.
I finally came up with the answer to the question in the title. You know you are a criminal defense attorney if you would do it even if you didn't have to. If someone gave you millions of dollars today and you never had to work again, you would still go into the office tomorrow (well maybe not tomorrow, but eventually) It's in your blood, and you can't just walk away.
Sadly, I don't think there are many such lawyers around anymore. Clients have no way of determining who is good, and who is not. The often make decisions on what they read online - i.e. hype. Few good lawyers engage in such practices, although it is become more of a necessity just to survive.
