It's my birthday. I'm taking the day off -- mostly (I had a meeting with a new client). I'm baking a chocolate fudge cake and making some raspberry ice cream to go with it.

I received this email: Your Google link says, "We Have Never Prosecuted." I immediately thought, they're pandering to the lunatic defendant--those persons who believe that all former prosecutors must secretly hope the defendant is locked away. If there are many defendants out there who think like that, then your link heading might be helpful. I'm guessing you haven't gotten a single client because of it. Don't you

Skelly writes: When, after saving your client many months of freedom, your [juvenile] client's parent tells you, "I don't think you did a very good job representing my son," you do not get to reply, "I don't think you did a very good job raising him."In the comments, "Vinnie" asked, "Why not?"; I have to echo the sentiment. I once was told by a client's sister, "you

The Texas client confidentiality rules are much much more protective of our clients' secrets than many criminal-defense lawyers treat them. The basic rule is TDRPC 1.05, which describes two types of confidential information: (a) "Confidential information" includes both "privileged information " and "unprivileged client information." "Privileged information" refers to the information of a client protected by the lawyer-client privilege of Rule 5.03 [sic] of the Texas Rules

New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield wrote yesterday (at 6:28 a.m. on a Sunday morning, for crying out loud!) about Conflict Aversion and Personality Traits (or is it "Conflict Aversion and Personality Flaws?" See the URL). In Scott's excellent post, he focuses on criminal-defense lawyers' lack of aversion to conflict: We avoid conflict when we can. We search for mutual ground, things we can agree upon. We

The day before yesterday, Ft. Worth criminal-defense lawyer Young Shawn Matlock wrote about The Lawyer Known as Weinstein, who "Would do anything to get a client. Back in the day, he even went to the client's home. He makes whatever promise he needs to get the client. After all, it's no problem for him. The problem is the client's when the client realizes he has hired a

With new practical blawgers coming online every week, I think some advice from those who have been around a little (or a lot) longer might be beneficial. For example, New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield (of Simple Justice) says Since you have no track record, it would be helpful to provide a short bio so we know who you are, what type of work you do and

Maggie joins the practical blawgosphere with Of Counsel. Welcome, Maggie. Some day soon I'll update the blawgroll and include a selection of worthwhile prosecutor blawgs.

Via Anne Reed, this Above the Law post about . . . . . . a California misdemeanor case in which the defense is claiming that police brutalized their client with a stun gun during his arrest at a shopping mall last year. That's because the defense team is now being criminally investigated for allegedly violating human experimentation laws by repeatedly using a stun gun on their

My friend Scott Greenfield is miffed about my characterization of his perspective on the question of when we should answer questions that the judge asks us about what we have told our clients. Scott thinks that I'm accusing him of being unethical -- untrue -- and that I'm incorrect about his view -- apparently. What we're talking about is the fact that we've conveyed a plea offer