Two recent news items, perhaps pertinent to the question of whether prosecutors lead more sheltered existences than self-employed lawyers: In Searching for New Job, Gonzales Sees No Takers - New York Times and Law of Criminal Defense - And you think the economy sucks? Ask any criminal-defense lawyer Let me sum up: former top prosecutor can't get a job (New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield let him

I need an OS X program to handle 1.5 million lines of data. Prefer freeware / open source / shareware, but will go commercial if necessary. Suggestions?

I've taken some criticism for my belief that Harris County Prosecutors (and judges) are typically deficient in the real-world experience that leads to perspective and empathy. Quoth AHCL: But as to Mark's argument about "real world experience" outside of the prosecutor's office being a bonus to being a criminal District Court Judge, I do actually disagree. The only exception to that is that I do think that

Critics of the federal government like to ascribe its ballooning power in criminal cases to the fear-driven actions of recent Republican administrations. A longer view, however, reveals that the government's actions that breed discontent in 2008 were made possible by the overreaching of a Democratic administration more than seventy years ago. Like today, we had a president in 1937 who was eager to expand the power of

New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield writes that he feels taken advantage of by people who use his free consultations to get free legal advice; he's begun charging for consultations. Rarely having a problem with people meeting with me on pretexts, I hadn't seriously considered charging for consultations, but right up until Scott's last paragraph, I was thinking, "that's a good idea. Maybe I ought to do

Kevin McHenry has called nine times to try to sell me something. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have my office number; he keeps calling directly to my answering service number. Here's his first message: 3/14/08 11:47A “to”::MR. BENNETT “first;::KEVIN “last”::MCHENRY “phone”::800-333-0401 EX 1121 “re”: INFO ON PERSONAL INJURY CASES 3/14/08 11:47A Okay: I'm a criminal-defense lawyer. I don't want “info on personal injury cases”, and nothing could

I've written before, here, here, and here, as well as here, about former prosecutors taking criminal cases. So when I read Rick Casey's column in this morning's Chronicle, Who I'll Hire if I'm Caught, in which he explained why he would hire Kelly Siegler to defend him against criminal charges -- because "if she can convict an innocent man, she can keep me out of trouble" --

The last time I had an ID on a lanyard was the summer of 1988, when I was working at CIA's Office of Technical Services and had a green badge that had to be exposed at all times at work. For reasons that are perhaps obvious, I would remove the badge and lanyard when I departed Headquarters in the evening. Back then, ordinary everyday people didn't have

Communicating With Juries with Josh Karton Sponsored by TCDLA and HCCLA May 8, 2008 - | Houston, Texas | Hyatt Regency | CDLP | TBD cle Click Here for a Registration Form Overview“APPEARING, LIVE, IN THIS COURTROOM!” WORKSHOPS IN COURTROOM COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES Whether you are addressing the jurors or judge directly, or reaching them through dialogue with a witness, your power of persuasion in the courtroom depends

Well we’ve obviously had this political mantra over the last 30 years about “getting tough on crime.” And I think too often, buried in that mantra is the implication that there’s no room for fair justice. We’ve stripped away protections for the accused. And as a result, I think many prosecutors went into a case with blinders on—like everyone was guilty. The more convictions you won, the