These are the best pieces of advice I ever received, and I tried to follow them.
Being a solo practitioner all these years is proof that I took the advice to heart.
Representing individuals in challenging case is evidence evidence that the greater the challenge, the more I've relished it. Golden Dragon, Foxglove, False Accusations of Child Sexual Molestation.
None of my three sons were attracted to law, but engineering, which is a lot simpler, don't you think? Law of gravity here; here's how we beat it over here. What could be simpler. I could beat it. That's the way you think when you practice criminal law, which is much more challenging than gravity. In gravity, there are no exceptions. In criminal law there are, but when you try to take advantage of one of them on behalf of a morally impure client (tip: they're all morally impure), guess what, the judge steps up to the plate and fills in the hole in the DA's case.
You, as prosecutor, argued that the defendant knowingly lied, cheated and stole, but can't prove criminal intent in the Enron case? Have no fear. We have something better than evidence and witnesses to do that for you. We have a judge who will allow jury instructions, the mother's milk of a jury trial, who will give an instruction that turning a blind-eye, if you believe this is what the presumed-innocent-accused did, is a quite sufficient substitute.
They're calling this the Ostrich Rule, after the big bird who, allegedly, buries his head in the sand to avoid seeing bad news. Avoidance of knowledge is deemed in law, in federal court, as being the same as evil intent. What an easy life federal prosecutors must have. When you've got the judge in your pocket, what else is there to worry about, as long as your fly is zipped.
Chief Judge of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals jumped out of the government's pocket recently. He went waay out on a limb to explain why the gummint didn't need to prosecute an alleged terrorist and then the gummint went and prosecuted.
After you've sold your soul to the Damn Gummint and it didn't come through with a Supreme Court appointment after all, you might as well quit.
Well, that's exactly what Michael Luttig did.
Quit his lifetime job as the top judge on the 4th Circuit and went into the military industrial complex at a big pay boost, I'm willing to bet.
Got his butt burned by the law firm of Bush and Gonzalez, A-G, LLP.
You can read about it here. (and below).
What's the definition of a Liberal?
A conservative judge who got burned by his president.
Ah, well, Luttig can now make fighter jets and bombers, and sell airplanes to China.
A step up for a federal judge, don't you think?
I think so.