Defending People

the tao of criminal defense trial lawyering

Three Years

Mark Bennett | March 18, 2010

Today begins my fourth year of writing Defending People. It all started on March 19, 2007 with Introduction. Since then I’ve written 1,325 posts and published over 6,000 comments. I’ve had about 429,065 unique visitors, and received enough positive feedback to keep me both blogging and humble.
Thank you for reading Defending People. Without you I’d [...]

Tried to Comment on Texas Lawyer Blog

Mark Bennett | March 9, 2010

I tried to leave a comment on Texas Lawyer magazine’s Tex Parte Blog. I got this in my email from the Managing Editor of Texas Lawyer:
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment on Texas Lawyer’s blog. To publish it, I need your written permission, full name and city, all of which [...]

Chris Dorbandt and Catalyst Design: Partners in Crime

Mark Bennett | March 3, 2010

Rule 7.02 Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services(a) A lawyer shall not make or sponsor a false or misleading communication about the qualifications or the services of any lawyer or firm. A communication is false or misleading if it:(1) contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make the statement [...]

The First Annual Bloggers’ Best Awards

Mark Bennett | December 11, 2009

If you have a blog and agree that blog popularity contest are jokes, please join me at Social Media Tyro in choosing the best law blogs of 2009, and spread the word.
Thank you.

Comment Bug?

Mark Bennett | November 9, 2009

If you tried to leave a comment in the last couple of days and it didn’t post, please try again or leave a comment here. I had installed the Subscribe to Comments plugin, and I think it might have broken commenting.

Lessons in Media Relations and Blogging, from Tyler Flood [Updated, and Again]

Mark Bennett | November 7, 2009

Tyler Flood (one of the smartest lawyers Tyler Flood has ever met!) says of his recent debacle in the Houston Press:
During the course of this process I praised so many of my colleagues and even told Mike who to talk to, including Jed [Silverman], Gary [Trichter], Troy [McKinney], [Mark] Thiessen, Murph [Doug Murphy], Jim Medley [...]

Stuff I Don’t Want to Miss Mentioning

Mark Bennett | October 30, 2009

Scott Greenfield makes the world a little safer for blawgers (via Houston criminal defense lawyer Paul Kennedy).
RIP John O’Quinn. A great lawyer and, like many great lawyers, not without personal demons (Rick O’Casey, Houston Chronicle).
Memo from Pat Lykos to Harris County prosecutors: if you violate Batson you’re “incompetent;” if you violate Brady it’s the defense’s [...]

Power, Responsibility

Mark Bennett | October 21, 2009

As if it were not humbling enough being, on my very best day, the fourth-smartest mammal in the house, I’ve got this blog and my loyal readers to remind me of my modest position in the universe.
If I were afraid of making mistakes, I’d never get anything done. Life and the practice of law, like [...]

Blatant Shoutout to Three New Blogs

Mark Bennett | September 14, 2009

Mike at Crime and Federalism wrote back in July about How the Legal Blogosphere Has Changed:
The modern legal blogosphere sucks because it’s been overrun by legal marketers, and because people who might be able to engage in actually-interesting conversations are too busy sucking up to their e-friends and e-colleagues.
Mike’s been doing this a long time. [...]

The Fresno Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Splog [Retitled and Updated 16 September 2009, 20 September 2009]

Mark Bennett | September 4, 2009

In followup to this post, I searched Twitter for mentions of “It’s Never Too Late to Repent, John and Johnny” (the title of the most recent post a Fresno criminal defense lawyer’s web designer stole from me). I found that someone using the name of the Fresno criminal defense lawyer had twitted a mention of [...]