Two Things to Read Today
When I met Norm Pattis in Wyoming in ’99, I knew: here is another lawyer smarter than me. If you’re a criminal-defense lawyer, or if you want to be a criminal-defense lawyer, read Norm’s terrific Another Year in the Trenches.
Jeff Gamso’s is, hands down, the best new criminal law blog of 2009. After you read Norm’s piece, read Jeff Gamso’s response, His Loyaltie He Kept.
Here is yet another lawyer smarter than me.
About The Author
[…] Deservedly, a special mention to Mark W Bennett of Defending People – a criminal defense lawyer. His views on criminal law may be Texas and US specific, but his views on freedoms and ethics are universal in spirit and application. His latest post pays tribute to a fellow lawyer: Two Things to Read Today. […]
LOL, when I first met Norm Pattis (about three years ago) I had to show him how to get into the back area of the Hartford Courthouse. It was then I realized that intelligence is a wonderous thing, but experience (actually being in the trenches) would afford even the most ignorant lawyer (like me) a distinct advantage.
While I applaud Norm (and the other very smart lawyers out there), it is to the experienced lawyers (like Mr. Bennett) I look for real guidance when I am in a difficult or unusual situation.
That being said, I have to say that Gamso has stated my reason for doing what I do quite eloquently: “The demand that the government prove guilt is the demand of the resistor. Of the hero.”
In that, I don’t have to chose sides. I don’t have to believe (or even think possible) innocence… I merely have to do my duty and force the state to make it’s case unequivocally. Some (maybe even many) of my clients are likely guilty. But if they are going to be prosecuted (persecuted?) and locked up by the behemoth that is the State, I am going to do my utmost to make good and damn sure that the state never gets off easy lest my acquiescence entice the state to become even more bold in its persecutions.