A tiff broke out at the Harris County Criminal Law Center.  The Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett, posted at Defending People that former adversary, now colleague following an unceremonious dumping, Murray Newman, wasn’t “thinking like a criminal defense lawyer.”  Murray, despite his now having three months on the side of truth and justice, took issue.

I guess my question is, who exactly appointed Mark to be the Yoda of the defense bar? Does being President of HCCLA really make him the Gatekeeper for those who are or are not worthy of being a true member of the Defense Bar? Or, is Mark, in his attempt to be provocative, just being a tool (like I was being to Mr. Dyer)? The things that he (and folks like Mr. Judicata) post on the web have questioned my ability to do my job based on what I write.

I think that Murray has made a foundational mistake in his question, as criminal defense lawyers are more akin to feral cats while prosecutors bear a remarkable likeness to lemmings, and Murray’s expectation of nurturing acceptance and support amongst his newest brethren may be somewhat naive. 

Within the criminal defense bar, we disagree with each other all the time.  And unlike the secret society of prosecutors, we tend to say so. Bennett has openly disagreed with me with some frequency, and it never bothers me when he demonstrates publicly that he’s wrong (see how that works, Murray?).  I don’t take it personally.  We’re friends.  Very good friends.  And we can disagree and then joke about it afterward.  No hard feelings.

But the question Murray asks, who made Bennett the Yoda of the defense bar, remains a valid one.  The same could be asked of me, or Gid, or Norm, or Jon, or any other criminal defense lawyer with a keyboard and dream.  We write blawgs.  We pontificate. We scrutinize what others say and do, and comment.  Sometimes our comments support others.  Sometimes our comments disapprove.  Stercus accidit.

Did anyone elect us to be the overseer of the criminal bar, to deem others worthy or not?  Nope.  We neither asked for, nor received, permission to critique anyone else.  If we are Yodas, we are entirely self-anointed. 

But we’re not Yodas.  Our words and thoughts carry no greater imprimatur of worthiness than anyone else’s, except to the extent that anyone bothers to read them.  What’s the sound of a man writing an unread blawg?  The fact that others do come and read the meandering thoughts we put to keyboard, and therefore ascribe a degree of credence to the thoughts we write, isn’t an indication that we believe ourselves to be a Yoda, but that others find some greater or lesser amount of worthiness in what we write to spend a small amount of their time reading it.

Not too long ago, Bennett won the ABA Beauty Pageant for having the Best Criminal Law Blawg in the Universe, a prize he well deserved notwithstanding the dubious authority of the ABA Journal to judge such matters.  To answer Murray’s point, the many people who voted for the Texas Tornado asked him to be Yoda.  The many people who read Defending People asked him to be Yoda.  And still, Bennett is too modest to use his bully pulpit, gently handed to him by those who appreciate his efforts, for self-aggrandizement.  Instead, he just writes about the things that concern him, always true to his belief as to what’s good and bad, right and wrong, and never in fear of attacking a sacred cow or covering up, even for a friend.

So, there are no real Yodas here, and readers can stop reading any time they please.  The second that cease to find the posts interesting, informative, maybe provocative, they can go elsewhere or, if they find them too long and tedious, can even twit.  Whatever suits them.  We have no control over anyone giving credence to our posts, whether due or not, and they will stand or fall on their own merits, and they will be judged again every day.

But Murray, we’re not like prosecutors.  We are tested by each other, challenged and questions and yes, sometimes attacked.  We disagree and dispute, and sometimes we make each other angry.  It happens.  What real criminal defense lawyers do not do is hide behind the pin-striped wall of collegiality to hide our errors, our disagreements, our dispute.   We air them out and then move forward, hopefully the better for it.  This is one of the reasons why not everyone is cut out to be a criminal defense lawyer.  If you want the brotherhood to circle the wagons around you, then become a cop.  If you are capable of facing the challenge, then don’t get all twisted by Bennett disagreeing with you, and face the criticism head on. 

And for the record, there’s much you can learn from Bennett about criminal defense.  He may not always be right, but little you learned as a prosecutor translates into criminal defense.  You could probably use a Yoda, and Bennett would make a very good one for you.  But if you fight with Yoda, you can end up back on the dark side.