Andrew

I've been asked that question repeatedly since I made it known to friends and family that I want to become a criminal defense attorney. I have spent a great deal of time and effort wrestling with the most appropriate way to answer that question. Today I came across two blog posts that answer the question far better than I can. The first post is What’s A Lawyer (To) Do? and the second is Sorry, No Justice Today.

Each of those sites is the blog (or blawg, as they call it) of a criminal defense attorney. They are both geared towards attorneys, but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading their writing. Both of them, in their own way, have inspired me. The summary of each of the posts is simple "A criminal defense attorney defends. Period." The author of the second post wrote it succinctly as "We defend. Get it or get out." I recommend reading both posts, because they explain how I feel.

Many times I try to explain myself in terms of justice or morality. In truth it's much simpler than that. I still have a strong moral code, and I still believe that it's immoral that poor people are often denied justice. Justice and morality help explain what prompted my decision to pursue law. I simply made the ignorant error of assuming that those same characteristics would define my role once I became an attorney. I've come to realize that when I speak of injustice I can speak in moral terms, but when I speak of the role of a defense attorney I shouldn't cloud the issue.

The author of Simple Justice wrote in comment "criminal defense lawyers defend people accused of crimes, whether it's comports with anyone's notion of justice or not" and the author of Probable Cause wrote in another post "I do what I do — in the words of Chief Judge Irving R. Kaufman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — 'justice will emerge from the forensic duel in the courtroom.'" They will likely never know it, but their words have had significant impact upon someone who will one day, hopefully, be an attorney.