Stephen Yagman.

Tim Lucas.

Mickey Sherman.

Three to a cell?  They could talk amongst themselves about their problems, their needs, the pressure they were under.  They could embrace each other and commiserate.  They could agree how unfair it all is, how wrong it is, how onerous the consequences.  All have been sentence to a term of imprisonment for failing to pay their taxes.

Is there something about lawyers that lends a sense of invulnerability to decisions that would otherwise be so utterly clear as to be beyond dispute?  Our clients expect us to advise them wisely, yet lawyers behave in a manner guaranteed to bring the wrath of the government down on their head?

I can’t help but see this, to some extent, as a sign of the times, the hubris of believing that we are so powerful and important that we can ignore the obvious and somehow avoid the consequences of conduct that everyone knows will follow.  Combined with the rather sick need to pretend to the world that we are fabulously successful and wealthy, and thus must have all the toys that successful and wealthy people have.  The Mercedes.  The Big House (no, not that big house, which comes later).  The iPad with unlimited access. 

These things cost money, and money has to come from somewhere.  The need to show off the world is far more pressing than the need to pay estimated taxes or send a check on April 15th.  Nobody is impressed with you for paying your taxes on time.  It’s not like you can put a sign on the side of the BMW that says, “and I paid my taxes too.”

Worse still, if you’re hellbent on screaming loud and often, “look at me, look how important I am,” then don’t be surprised if someone does.  Mickey Sherman had Larry King on speed dial.  How could he spend his evenings on the tube and not live the life of a celebrity?  It wouldn’t be right.

Yagman was a “crusader against police brutality.” and you tend to make enemies when you do stuff like that.  These are enemies looking for a way to pay you back for calling them bad names.  Nothing would please them more than to be able to call him bad names too, so why hand them a reason on a silver platter?

Lucas “lived an extravagant lifestyle during the years that he failed to pay his taxes, including spending $100,000 on trips to the French Caribbean territory of St. Barthelemy and $65,000 on trips to New York City.”  He argued at sentence that his excessive spending was the product of mild bi-polar disorder, and indeed it may well have been. 

“I have lost everything tangible and intangible,” he said. “My reputation, my law license, my ability to earn a living and my ability to provide for my family,” he said.

“I have lost everything I worked to gain in 37 years.”

Yet no one noticed that he was dropping hundreds of thousand of dollars?  He may have lost his ability to provide for his family, but it appears likely that his family lived pretty darned well until them gavel fell.  Where was the concern for his diseased profligate spending when there was an opportunity to stop it?

As lawyers, we are not merely expected to adhere to the same laws and regulations that apply to other, less fabulous, people.  We are in the crosshairs of the government.  Should we think ourselves above those laws, outside the range of conduct to which our clients are expected to conform, we are deluding ourselves.  We aren’t special.  We aren’t above the law. 

If you want to enjoy a long, healthy career as a criminal defense lawyer, taking strong stands and being available to stand beside society’s weakest and most reviled defendants, then it behooves you to make certain that you are personally above reproach.  When it comes to something so obvious, so ordinary, as paying your taxes, neither your need to project the image of success nor your sincere belief that some huge fee will walk in the door tomorrow and bail you out of the hole you’ve dug for yourself will suffice. 

It really won’t take much for the government to stick a fourth bed in the cell.  Don’t tempt them.  Pay your taxes on time and in full.  It may mean that you don’t drive an expensive car.  No one will think any less of you for it.  At least no one who matters.