Seemingly out of the blue, two lawyers held a press conference in Sanford, Florida.  Their names are Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig, but that’s not important. Anyone who didn’t care who they were a month ago won’t care who they are a month from now. 

By fortuitous connection, people with microphones and cameras came when they called yesterday. Soon, they will go back to living whatever lives they led before, except they will have a story to tell of their brief, shining moment when somebody cared what they said.

From the New York Times :

That narrative took a bizarre turn on Tuesday when two lawyers for Mr. Zimmerman held a news conference in Sanford, Fla., to say they had withdrawn from the case and had not heard from him since the weekend. The lawyers, Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig, said that against their advice, their client had reached out to Ms. Corey for a meeting. The special prosecutor had declined to speak with Mr. Zimmerman without his lawyers present. They said Mr. Zimmerman had also contacted the Fox News host Sean Hannity, but would not reveal the substance of the call.

What gave rise to this compelling need to put on a clean shirt and smile for the camera isn’t clear. Announcing that they no longer represent Zimmerman is a non-event. They could have similarly announced they were not made attorney general.  The suggestion that it was to stop all the reporters from seeking comment could have been better accomplished by telling the inquiring reporters that they were no longer Zimmerman’s lawyers.

But then, apparently they hadn’t told Zimmerman, who had apparently gone off the reservation and decided to take matters into his own hands. Again.

Mr. Zimmerman has also started a Web site, therealgeorgezimmerman.com, asking for funds to deal with the “life altering event” that, he wrote, forced him “to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life.” His lawyers said they had been unaware of Mr. Zimmerman’s plans to create the site.

It’s not that these moves have ended any possibility of representation, as Craig Sonner announced that

he was ready to resume his representation if Mr. Zimmerman explained his actions since the weekend and said, “I was wrong.”

Or maybe Zimmerman isn’t interested in Sonner’s representation? Or maybe Zimmerman doesn’t think he was wrong, though the “wrong” referred to here appears to be not appreciating the importance of his lawyer’s advice and presence.

When a situation, such as the one in which Zimmerman and Sonner, and to a lesser extent Uhrig who was apparently brought in because someone had to know something about the law, goes viral, it’s takes on a life of its own, a life with which none of the participants are prepared to deal.  The day before, no reporter in the world would have returned Sonner’s or Zimmerman’s telephone call. The next day, every reporter drools at the prospect of a few words, no matter how pointless or inappropriate. Hot news, baby.

It screws with people’s heads.  Sonner didn’t hold a press conference because he had an announcement that he, as a lawyer who has kinda withdrawn unless and until his client comes back to his fold, in his professional capacity believed needed to be made in the interest of his client. There was nothing about the press conference that was in his client’s, or former client’s as the case may be, interest.

What business does a lawyer have in uttering a word unless it’s in his client’s, or former client’s, interest? The lawyer isn’t a celebrity. He can’t sing. He can’t dance. He never made a sex tape that catapulted him onto a reality TV show. He’s just a lawyer.  The closest he comes to mattering to the media is that the words he utters can be printed or broadcast as if they came from the client.

The client is a “person of interest,” not in the cop sense but the salacious media sense.  Reporters would give their left nut to get their mitts on him, if only for the 15 minutes he matters before they turn their backs and run toward the next person of interest.  The client doesn’t have to sing or dance. He killed someone and that’s good enough.

There is no class in law school that teaches lawyers how to behave when the klieg lights go on.  There isn’t much discussion about how to answer questions, where the answers can be devastating to a client’s interest.  In an age where every school boy’s dream is to be a star, there is no preparation for the moment of transitory celebrity.  And when it happens, many find out very quickly that it’s not as cool as they thought, and that it’s fraught with dangers that can turn them from hero of the moment to the world’s biggest jerk.

The good news is that tomorrow, the lawyers will go back to living their lives of ordinary desperation, having nothing more than a story to tell of the day when they could call a press conference about nothing and reporters came running.  Some young lawyers will listen and wistfully dream of the day when they will become famous for a moment.  Maybe one or two will realize that these lawyers took a trip through the looking glass.

Many will be harsh in criticizing what Sonner and Uhrig for calling their press conference to announce that they no longer matter.  Don’t be too harsh.  When so many bright lights are pointing at you, it’s hard to know how to handle it.  The best answer, to remember that you’re just a lawyer, that this isn’t about you or your moment to be a shining star, and that your responsibility as a lawyer doesn’t change at all from when you represent the client who interests no reporter, is elusive.

Getting your face on TV or your name in the newspaper (and in the New York Times story, Doug Berman is quoted about the case, a curiosity since his focus is sentencing which has nothing to do with the scenario at this stage but didn’t stop Doug from enjoying an interview or serving as their credible academic of the moment) is supposed to be the primary goal of every lawyer who wants to become important.  How did that work out for Craig Sonner?  Finding oneself on the other side of the looking glass isn’t nearly as cool as they say.