PUBLIC DEFENDERS – PD OR NOT PD!
PART II OF IV
EXPERTISE
Public defenders – are they really that bad? Absolutely not. And sometimes, yeah, they are – but private attorneys aren’t all Johnnie Cochran or Matlock, either! When a lawyer gets out of law school, getting a job is almost always the first challenge. Usually the choices are (1) private practice – big law firms, corporate law and (2) public services – prosecutors, public defenders, lawyers for government. The simple fact is that lawyers who go into public service were probably, ON AVERAGE, not the best or most studious law students. Myself included! But I knew early on that I wanted to be in the courtroom as often as possible, not behind a desk. So my focus in law school was always geared towards public service, criminal law, moot court, and internships that put in a courtroom.
Very often, but not always, the more talented public defenders and prosecutors go into private practice for a firm or for themselves, where they can *hopefully* make more money, have more control over their schedules, and be selective about the cases they take. Others stay in public service their whole career, some because they want to rise up the ranks, others because they like the idea of working for the government and all the perks that go with it. I even know a few lawyers who can’t seem to make up their mind!
Focusing on expertise a bit closer, one of the true benefits of going with a public defender is that they don’t “get around much.” For instance, just in the last couple weeks I been in Flagstaff, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, downtown Phoenix, Scottsdale, to name a few. A public defender typically appears in one court all the time and knows the judges and prosecutors there pretty well. Unfortunately, depending on his or her relationships with those folks, it may not always be a good thing!
NEXT: STRATEGY DIFFERENCES
