There’s a reason why lawyers voted Mark Bennett’s Defending People the best criminal law blawg in the universe.  It’s because it provides such outstanding, down to earth, easy to digest, nuts and bolts advice to young lawyers who want to start a criminal defense practice as this. 

Bennett’s list covers a broad gamut of things that every lawyer needs to know.  And, I might add, some more experienced lawyers need to remember, as many in their zeal to pocket a few bucks have forgotten what they are here for and the rules of the game that distinguish good lawyers from the bad.  Yes Virginia, there are lawyers who are more concerned with getting your loot than helping you.

Some of these “rules” are provincial, and in various parts of the country don’t necessarily apply.  As with anything on the internet, a certain degree of local adaptations is critical, recognizing the circumstances vary from place to place and there’s no point in making yourself the perfect image of a lawyer from the Republic of Texas when you practice in Minneapolis (right J-dog?).  But if you’re smart enough to have found your way to Defending People, you’re smart enough to realize this and make the necessary modifications.

Still, there are a few that are universal, and that merit further emphasis:

Treat every case like a serious felony case. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it’s likely the most serious thing that your client has ever faced.

One of the most dangerous traps faced by young lawyers, both defense and prosecution, is to adopt that jaded demeanor worn by the tired old guys who sit in the courtrooms hour after hour that some cases are trivial, no big deal.  Oh, doesn’t that make you feel like your part of the club, shrugging off misdemeanors or DWIs because it’s no double homicide or 50 kilo seizure.  Big time lawyers don’t get all twisted over such small potatoes, right?

Wrong.  When you take a case, you take it for real.  No matter how big or small, high profile or low, you represent a human being, and the case matters to that human being, to his spouse and children (and maybe even their children) when they don’t go to college because daddy can’t get a job because of cheapola plea on this crappy trivial misdemeanor.  If you think you’re too important to handle it as if it was life or death, then don’t take it.  But treat your smallest case as seriously as your biggest.  Every time.

And for prosecutors, this goes double for you.  That trivial misdemeanor plea on that crappy bust is going to ruin someone’s life.  Does it make your chest burst with pride that you, you 24 year old mama’s boy from whitebread suburbia. have enjoyed the power of the state to ruin someone’s life so you have something to gloat about over a beer after work?

Don’t lie to your clients.

This one is a killer.  It’s just so easy to do, and can be so lucrative.  I’ve thought about the money I could have made if only I was willing to lie to my clients.  I know what they want to hear.  I know the magic words that will make their faces light up and their wallets open wide.  I can say those words.  I have the ability to open my mouth and utter them aloud.  All I needed to do was softly, gently, whisper the words they want to hear and I could have put my family in the lap of luxury.

Other lawyers do it.  I know they do.  They’ve told me.  Clients have told me.  I’ve heard it with my own ears.  Just make the promise.  Give them the “guarantee” they so desperately seek.  Don’t worry about it, because later, when things don’t turn out they way you said they would, it’s a snap to come up with some story, some excuse, that will bail you out.  We’re lawyers.  We can lie like nobody’s business.  We can spin the clients’ heads around so they don’t know whether they’re coming or going.  And we can collect a fee on each and every pass.  There’s nothing to it.

But . . . we’re lawyers.  Your mother may have told you that the only thing you have is your education, and nobody can take that away from you.  She was wrong.  The only thing you have is your integrity.  When you lie to your client, you lose it.  You’ve given it away and you cannot get it back.  You know it, even if the client doesn’t.  Unless you think Bernie Madoff was on the right track, a deal with the devil will be the last time you ever respect yourself.  Don’t do it. 

Of course, some clients want to be lied to.  They want you to paint the future rosy, even though they know it’s black.  Their eyes plead for some ray of hope, some straw to grasp.  Just as it’s facile to confuse honesty with undue optimism, it’s not necessary to replace integrity with negativity.  Just remember that you’re not Jimmy the Greek, so when you’re asked to lay odds, and there’s cash on the line, don’t fudge the truth.  Be the lawyer you want to be on the day you die.  Be it every day.

Keep your overhead as low as possible.

Young lawyers are particularly susceptible to the trappings of office, and I mean that in every sense.  They want the corner office to impress clients.  They want the ego wall to show clients how well educated they are and how many framed things with their name on them they can hang.  When you’re young, these things make you feel like clients will take you seriously and treat you with respect.

This is one of the primary reasons that young lawyers join the various bar associations available to them.  Most of the public is unaware that bar associations have nothing to do with attorney admission or licensure or ethics, but with the payment of a fee.  Most of the lawyers who pay the fee have nothing to do with the bar association beyond that.  Maybe the go to the annual award dinner, to meet and greet or see their favorite big name lawyer receive his 32nd award for still breathing and, as it happens, brining in a couple tables of guests. 

While a certain amount of brick and mortar is necessary to show you exist, just as there might be a lapse of faith in an electrician working out of the trunk of his ’94 Taurus, be cautious how you spend your money.  The less you piss away, the more you earn.  The less you piss away, the less you need to charge.  The less you piss away, the more time you will have to treat every case like it’s the biggest case in the world.

Your best means of building a client base is satisfied clients.  Your best means of satisfying clients is by doing everything in your power to help them.  A referral from a satisfied client means far more than paper on the wall, or where along the hallway your office is located.  And there’s no out-of-pocket cost to it, nor legal marketer who can do it for you.  Go figure.

Learn Spanish.

I wish I could speak better Spanish.  I really do.  Yes, judges speak English, but there are many clients who don’t and they are entitled to understand what’s going on despite the fact that they aren’t fluent in English.  But even if and when you learn Spanish, do not assume that you speak it well enough to fully convey the meaning of what is happening.  Just as clients often tell us that they speak English when they really don’t, or that they understand when they haven’t a clue, don’t think your pidgin Spanglish is an adequate substitute for real communication.  You owe your clients better.

For the rest of Bennett’s advice, go to the Big Kahuna’s post itself.  He’s got plenty more to say, and it’s all important to know.