Criminal Trial Attorney Professionalism
Trial Lawyer: Hurt Feelings
Taking audience with a jury is usually a last resort in any case. But this work consumes many criminal defense lawyers. Trial lawyers die young. Maybe it’s the stress. Maybe it’s the beating our bodies take, because our dietary and physical routines are derailed. Regardless, our lives are left with scars because of the sacrifice. This is especially true of our relationships with other lawyers.
Even the most professional and disciplined mind finds itself emotionally latching onto the trial. This is true for defense lawyers pleading for a client or prosecutors making a stand for victims. Especially in the criminal arena, a good trial lawyer must emotionally connect with the story of the trial. So, our law school friends or ol’ drinking buddies become the villain of that story.
Must it be this way?
If, in the exercises, one has torn us with his nails, or bruised us accidentally with his head, we express no resentment; we are not offended; nor do we suspect him for the future, as a person secretly designing our destruction: and yet we are on our guard against him; not as an enemy, or a person suspected; but with a good-natured caution, for our own safety. Let us thus behave in all parts of life, and conceive many things thus done, as in the exercises. Let us, as I said, be upon our guard; but without suspicion or enmity.
Book VI
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
When I was a prosecutor I regularly battled it out with defense lawyers that were also great friends. Brian Schmidt (Athens criminal defense lawyer) and I would try case after case against each other. Only once did we really get too cross-ways, and it turned out to be a misunderstanding that was solved with just a little communication and a few beers.
We were compared to Ralph E. Wolf and Sam Sheepdog (Note 1) by one of the wonderful ladies running the office at the County Attorney’s Office where I prosecuted. Brian and I would come to the courthouse, wait for the whistle to blow, and then he’d try to steal the sheep while I pummeled him in sadistic but humorous ways (Note 2).
But we were just trying misdemeanor cases against each other. His clients weren’t looking at spending their life in prison or as a sex offender. I usually did not have a “victim” other than the State of Texas (Note 3). So, it was relatively easy to keep our friendship in tact, trial after trial.
These days I don’t often find myself “battling it out” over misdemeanor DWIs. Instead, when we are in trial it’s usually for a case that could result in a life sentence or children being removed from their home, forever. With higher stakes comes greater pressure to win.
The Texas legal community strives to uphold the highest level of professionalism. Tarrant County is among the most professional of bars. The Texas Lawyer’s Creed mandates professionalism, “I can disagree without being disagreeable. I recognize that effective representation does not require antagonistic or obnoxious behavior.” As a profession, we have well laid plans to protect our relationships with our colleagues. Although this sounds like a lead-in to a Rabbie Burns quote, I think it is better said…
Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.
– Mike Tyson
It is an escalation of violence. Beginning in jury selection, one side tries to squeeze in a PowerPoint Slide that is inappropriately inflammatory. Then the other side feels empowered to act-in-kind. Besides, it’s not a tickling match. They’re trying to destroy my client’s life! Soon, gloves are off, and we’re all busted and bruised.
Then the jury is released. Hopefully my client is released. But my heart is still pounding with indignant anger. I want to remember the prosecutors were just doing their job, but it sure seems personal. Eventually the blood pressure drops, but some residue of that rage remains. So, the next time we step into the ring the flame doesn’t have to be struck, only fanned.
A Solution, Maybe…
Someone might say, “If it makes you so toxic, then stop doing what you’re doing!” That’s not a real option for someone that has fallen in love with the courtroom. Borrowing from Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), avoidance may not be the best method for addressing the stress on our relationships. ACT views the source of many repeat problems as a cycle referred to as FEAR:
- Fusion with your thoughts;
- Evaluation of experience;
- Avoidance of your experience;
- Reason-giving for your behavior.
Instead, let’s try a healthy alternative, ACT:
- Accept your reactions and be present;
- Choose a valued direction;
- Take action.
Accept your reactions and be present – Know from where your animosity stems, the battle. Recognize you have heated emotions remaining inside. Recognize it is likely you will spew some of those emotions in your interpersonal relationships rather than the battlefield. Notice what you are doing.
Choose a valued direction – Identify the relationships that are important to you. Make a decision to protect and nurture those relationships. If the relationship is not important to you then accept the casualty.
Take action – Buy me a beer. Be deliberate about your out-of-court interactions. With the recognition of your residual emotions, after choosing to value the relationship, take action to nurse wounds. We can all connect and understand one another on some level.
Note 1: I do miss Linda, and the rest of the folks at the Henderson County Attorney’s Office.When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.
– Dale Carnegie
Note 2: Brian did beat me repeatedly at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Note 3: We did try an assault case in which Brian’s client was a one-armed man in a wheelchair. My victim was a 250 lbs. convicted felon. I won.
