10 OBSERVATIONS ABOUT BEING A CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY

This was emailed to us by several people. It is the observations of Federal Judge Richard Kopf, and appeared on the Blog Simple Justice: 

It occurred to me that the readers might be interested in my top ten observations about criminal defense lawyers from the perspective of a federal trial judge. So, in no particular order of importance, here are my observations:

10. Criminal defense lawyers are at great risk of becoming drunken bastards—the stress is beyond description.

9. Being a good criminal defense lawyer requires sincerity whereas being a great criminal defense lawyer requires the ability to fake it.

8. When it comes to convincing a client to accept a guilty plea because it is in the manifest best interests of the client, a criminal defense lawyer must become a client whisperer.

7. When it comes to convincing a client to reject a plea offer and take the case to a jury, a criminal defense lawyer (regardless of gender) must possess balls of steel. (Rumpole says- we just did that, and you have no idea, but you're in the ballpark.)

6. Real criminal defense lawyers don’t hate prosecutors, but they don’t trust them either.

5. Criminal defense lawyers know that the federal trial judge is never their friend, but the judge is seldom their enemy.

4. A tiny fraction of people who have law degrees have the ability to become even mediocre criminal defense lawyers.

3. If you became a criminal defense lawyer because you like Rolex watches, then you are an asshole.   (Rumpole wonders what does our Audemars Piguet make us? )

2. You must have a big ego to become a decent criminal defense lawyer but you must not be an egotist—it is never, ever about you. (Rumpole says- very true)

1. Real criminal defense lawyers represent clients and not causes.

By the way, this was to be my last post on Fault Lines. So, I will end by making explicit what is implicit in the foregoing. To all who labor as criminal defense lawyers and who aspire to be good, and perhaps even great, ones, I respect you more than you will ever know. (Rumpole says: then how about a couple of rule 29's your honor?)

All the best.

Richard G. Kopf