How to Start a Law Practice

I proposed to my alma mater that someone should teach its students how to start a law practice, and volunteered to teach the course myself. I got this response:

Teaching law office management courses at the law school causes problems. The University doesn?t think they are ?law.

Of course! Any fool can see that teaching [...]

Where are the Texas Experts?

This comment on Scott Greenfield’s blog by one of the authors of the recent Dallas Morning News article on probation for murder in Texas got me thinking a bit. “A closer read of our series,” he wrote, “shows that prosecutors still can offer probation through plea bargains with defendants.” Here is the article about which [...]

Texas Murder Sentences: Probation to Death

There has been some ado in the blawgosphere lately about the fact that Texas juries could convict people of murder, and then give them probation. (It’s not the law anymore — for murders after September 1, 2007, probation will not be an option for the jury.) Furriners (anyone unfamiliar with Texas culture, including reporters from [...]

Lawyers Who Never Lose

Scott and Norm and Gideon and Stephen have been having a discussion, started by Norm, about lawyers “keeping score” — keeping track of (and, incidentally, boasting about) their won/lost records.
Norm points out that a jury trial really isn’t a sporting event, and the playing field isn’t level.

I can’t promise any client that a [...]

Game Over, Dude

Over at Simple Justice Scott addresses Other Steve’s question of whether he should be a criminal defense lawyer. Scott’s a steely-eyed realist; he doesn’t share the popular delusion that our criminal justice system is a great system; no, the system sucks. And criminal defense lawyers aren’t likely to strike it rich. But still:

We [...]

Judicial Elections

I am the campaign treasurer for Shawna Reagin, who is running as a Democrat for the 176th District Court of Harris County, Texas. Today I learned that the incumbent judge (who really has to go) now has a Republican opponent in the primary: Michelle Satarelli (Oncken). Michelle is a Harris County ADA who is married [...]

A couple of Good Moments, and One Less Good

First, only the criminal defense lawyers will truly appreciate this setup (it actually happened today in trial):
Prosecutor (to a defense punishment witness, before the jury): D would benefit from college classes, wouldn’t he?
Witness: Yes, I suppose he would.
Prosecutor: And did you know that inmates can take college classes in prison?
Witness: Well, I guess they can, [...]

Bad Sports.

In the end, after a hard-fought battle, the jury gave Tyrone’s and my clients 10 years and recommended probation. So they’ll be on probation. So, after yesterday’s highs and lows, we put this one solidly in the “win” column.
I always shake my adversaries’ hands and tell them “nice work” before the jury returns with its [...]

Jury No Longer Out.

Two guilty verdicts. An acquittal would have been a victory; a mistrial would have been a victory; probation would be a victory too. These two young men don’t need to go to prison. It’s tragic that the complainant lost his life. It sucks, it’s unjust, it’s unfair, and nothing this jury does can possibly make [...]

Jury is Still Out

They came back at 8:30 this morning. At about 2:30 they sent out a note indicating that they were having difficulty agreeing and expected to be unable to agree. They indicated that there were eight people in favor of conviction, one strongly in favor of acquittal, one favoring acquittal but open to further discussion, and [...]

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