When a call (or email) comes in from a potential new client, the first question asked is what’s the case about.  Clients are often reluctant to say aloud what their problem is, whether because they fear the phone is tapped or they are just embarrassed to find themselves in need of legal services.  Sometimes there’s someone listening, like the cop who just printed them.  Other times there’s a family member, and the client would prefer not to shatter their hope.  It’s all part of the deal.

But every once in a while, someone requests a consultation with only a vague purpose.  “I need to discuss a very important matter with you.”  No detail as to the nature of the matter, criminal or civil.  No information about an arrest or prosecution.  Just “a matter.”

An email like this came in the other day.  It included the right words, recognizing that there would be a fee for the consultation.  But it didn’t provide any hint as to the subject matter of the consultation.  It was polite and appropriate in tone.  But it studiously avoided giving any hint of why a consultation was sought.  I turned it down.

This is a phenomenon that would happen to a civil lawyer.  A paying client is rarely turned away from a consultation.  There would be no reason to do so, since the hour of the lawyer’s life would be filled and the worst that could happen is that the lawyer informed the client that his legal needs were outside the lawyer’s realm of expertise.  And of course, there’s always the referral, a potential goldmine for rainmakers who take their third for sending clients to others.

In criminal defense, these requests hold a special risk.  Over time, criminal defense lawyers learn a bit about the mechanics of crime.  How successful criminal enterprises function; how unsuccessful criminal enterprises fail.  We may lack certain specifics about the manufacture of drugs, but we do learn a great deal about how people get caught with them.  This knowledge has value to certain people.

Vague requests for a consultation have occasionally sought my legal counsel on how to commit crime.  Some people will pay very well for the information I’ve gleaned over the years, and it will likely save them a great deal in legal fees and years in prison, not to mention opportunity costs.  If one was to think of a criminal enterprise as a business, this would be the function corporate lawyers serve.  Except the business of the business is illegal.

This is where the line is drawn.  Lawyers cannot do this.  We may have plenty to offer, but aiding someone in the commission of a crime is illegal and unethical.  This is the difference between a criminal lawyer and a criminal defense lawyer.  The former goes to jail.  The latter doesn’t do it.

But there is another problem lurking in the background.  If you seek advice on how to get away with a crime you plan to commit in the future, you’ve come to the wrong place.  Lawyers cannot do this.  We cannot tell you how to best commit crime, or how to get away with it. 

We are lawyers, not your co-conspirators.  We cannot help you to be better criminals.  This may strike you as a silly difference, and you may think we’re being too prissy about it, but this is an absolute line that can never be crossed.  We are criminal defense lawyers, not criminals.

A dear lawyer friend of mine, a good guy who wanted to serve his clients well, found himself straddling this line.  He knew where the line was drawn, but had a client who he had represented before and who he hoped to represent again, push against the line a few times.  The lawyer at first resisted, but he wanted desperately, too desperately, to keep the client.  And he finally toed, then crossed, the line. 

When the client was arrested, the first thing he did was rat out the lawyer.  It was a big fish for the government, and bought the client five years off the back end of a thirty year sentence.  The government was happy, though neither client nor former lawyer were feeling very good about their choices.

You want a consultation?  My pleasure.  Just provide me with the required level of detail to know that it’s for a lawful purpose and within my realm of expertise.  I couldn’t care less if you’re guilty or innocent.  It doesn’t matter if you want to keep it secret from your spouse or boss.  I won’t tell.  But please don’t expect me to engage in any conduct that is illegal or unethical.  That’s all I ask.