Former criminal defense lawyer, television star and disco dance instructor, Ken Lammers, who went to the dark side as an assistant Virginia Commonwealth Attorney, offers a quick lesson to baby prosecutors: Figure out which defense attorneys are trustworthy.

Now, if you’re a sane person, how much you like a person probably has something to do with that person’s trustworthiness. However, the converse does not necessarily follow. There will be all sorts of defense attorneys whom you will find trustworthy and not be good buddies with because they are much older or much younger than you, have different interests, or you just aren’t similar types . Remember that the fact you aren’t buddies with someone does not establish that person as untrustworthy.

As marketers have long ago discovered, people trust people they like.  It makes no sense, but still we do, and the corollary is that we don’t trust people we don’t like.  But as Ken warns, allowing this gut instinct to filter through to professional judgment is unwise.  Our willingness to let our personal judgment of trustworthiness influence professional trust can lead to grievous errors.

How then do you determine trustworthiness? Well, one of the advantages of criminal law is that we tend to deal with the same attorneys over and over. It is truly a local enterprise. The people in your office will be able to give you a heads up on pretty much everyone who walks into the courthouse. This is how you will sort out the most untrustworthy. When everybody in the office starts regaling you with stories of how John Smith and Pete Greene have messed people over time and time again you’ll know not to trust those individuals. After that it gets more difficult. Most of the time there’s no easily discernible line in the sand.

The first lesson is that a liar is a liar, and once a criminal defense lawyer has established himself as a liar, he can no longer be trusted. Period.  Reputations earned, unlike brands manufactured, are impossible to ignore. A reputation for being dishonest is one that will haunt you. Lie to someone and they will tell everyone they see that you are a liar. The word will spread, and quickly, that you can’t be trusted. And once your name and liar are inextricably connected, it’s nearly impossible to break the link. You are a liar.

After you get past the defense attorneys who are absolutely untrustworthy you will find others who will be untrustworthy as to certain matters. A strange phenomenon which you’ll run into every once in a while is the lawyer who will be straight as an arrow in everything else, but will lie like a dog in order to get a continuance. Usually, you’ll get tipped about this lawyer by people in your office.

Some would call this a “white lie syndrome,” something as relatively innocuous as a continuance (in New York, we refer to it as an adjournment), where the true reason for seeking a continuance either isn’t the sort of thing one wants to say aloud, or would reveal a strategic problem or confidence, might be the subject of a little loose talk, but some people view a continuance as relatively harmless thing, and a bit of spin as hurting no one.

Beyond that you are going to have to start making calls on your own. Start out being somewhat conservative and loosen up some over time. Eventually, no matter what you do, you will get burnt by some defense attorney whom you trusted too much while you were in a hurry or not paying enough attention. Don’t let that sour your relations with other defense attorneys. Adjust your behavior toward that attorney accordingly and let others know about it.

Thought and discretion, always sound advice.  And in part 2 of the lesson, Ken raises the stakes by noting that some things are sufficiently serious or important that a prosecutor simply cannot accept the word of the criminal defense lawyer, no matter how truthful he’s perceived”

Trust but verify. I know it’s a hackneyed phrase, but it does represent a certain reality. You must set a level below which you will not apply trust to anyone, even the defense attorneys whom you most trust.

Why?

Well, for a variety of reasons. Foremost among those is that even the most forthright defense attorney is often operating with limited knowledge – usually what her client has told her.

Again, sound advice, and quite true that the criminal defense lawyer wasn’t present for the crime, and relies on his source of information, which may be neither as honest nor accurate as the lawyer would otherwise be.

All good stuff, and quite thoughtful of Ken to impart his experience to baby prosecutors.  But it strikes me that Ken hasn’t gone nearly far enough.  Being a helpful sort of fellow, I will extend it a bit.

Prosecutors are just as susceptible to lying, and gaining a reputation as a liar, as anyone else. Lie and we will remember.  And as an aside, not everyone travels the path that Ken Lammers traveled, from defense lawyer to prosecutor. Most go the other way, and when you leave the prosecutor’s office, your reputation as a liar (or a straight shooter) goes with you. As does your reputation for being a heartless prick. If you were hated as a prosecutor, you will not be embraced as a criminal defense lawyer.

Cops lie to you. For one thing, they lie because they believe it’s part of the game, just as some criminal defense lawyers may lie about the reason for needing an adjournment, except cops’ lies put people in prison. They rationalize it by justifying the outcome, the ends justify the means, the criminal goes to prison. 

But (and this comes as a shock to baby prosecutors) they don’t trust you.  You’ve been a lawyer all of twelve minutes and they’ve been on the street for 20 years. They know everything. You know nothing. Do you seriously believe they are awed by your vast education? Do you seriously believe they trust your discretion more than their own? Prosecutors come and go, but they will still be fighting the criminals, You’re just today’s flavor to them, and they will play you like a violin.

And you will love the cops for it. They’re cool, and daring, and macho. They have guns and war stories. They have saved humanity, while you sit in an office. You will want to hang with them, drink beer with them, ride along with them, be accepted by them. You will adore them, and be blinded by your adoration from the fact that they lie to you.  Like criminal defense lawyers who are constrained to rely on defendants, you are constrained to rely on police officers. Neither has a monopoly on lying.

The difference between prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers is twofold. First, the former tends to have more of the same, and more different, experience than you, both in the real world and in court. Most criminal defense lawyers were once baby prosecutors or baby public defenders, scratching and sniffing their way through the system. They had successes and failure, been helped and burned. Turned jaded and worldly.

The second distinction is that you believe that your side stands for truth and justice.  Accordingly, the other side does not.  While it may be hard to put a cap on what it means to believe that you are the good guys, the ones who stand between polite society and chaos, you know that what you do protects others, and they depend on you to do it well. 

And this is the biggest lie of all. Neither prosecutor nor defense lawyer sits at the right hand of God.  Both are needed to bring anything remotely resembling fairness and accuracy to a deeply flawed system, and even when both sides do their job properly, it’s still haphazard at best.  But to believe that one side owns righteousness is delusional. You are but a cog in the wheel, as are defense lawyers, and judges as well.

And anyone who tells you anything different is lying.