I grew up wanting to be a criminal attorney. I changed my mind after my first DUI case. I went to a small unaccredited law school. This meant I could take the bar exam but I would not have the job offers graduates from ABA accredited schools would get. But that was all right. I figured I would break into criminal law somehow.
I simply wanted to graduate. Then I wanted to pass the bar. I would think about getting work as a lawyer later.
Government work is the best place to get criminal law experience. Really, it is the only place. Most if not all criminal law lawyers in private practice worked for the district attorney office or the public defender to begin. But most if not all of those jobs go to graduates or ABA schools. But I was able to get an interview with the county I lived in. There was a state wide hiring freeze because of budget shortages. But it was lifted for one position in the county public defenders office. I got 88 out of 100 in the interview. I knew this was not high enough with all the competition for one job opening.
Two days late I received a notice in the mail that the hiring freeze was back in effect. The county had not even filled the one position before the freeze was back in place. I decided to take a course in drunk driving defense. What I learned seemed easy enough to put into practice.
I put a small advertisement in the local shopper offering my services to those who needed help with their DUI charge. My phone rang non-stop it seemed for three days. I went to court the following week with my first client in the court house across the street from where I had graduated from college. I had never been in one of the court rooms I thought as I was parking my car.
There was really no defense for my client. His alcohol blood level was above the legal limit. The cop stopped him as he was driving out of the driveway of the bar he had been drinking in all night. But as my instructor said some people like a lawyer to hold their hand as they are going through the process. That was my role that morning, hand holder.
I went over to the deputy district attorney to discuss the charge and the penalty she would agree to as I learned in class. She was chatting with the female bailiff. I patiently waited for her to finish. The bailiff looked me up and down, turned her nose up and walked away. When I asked the deputy district attorney about the charge and penalty she curtly said I would find out from the judge. She said this without looking up from her files.
I was however treated politely by the female judge. I think she must have come up from the ranks of the public defenders office and knew what it was like dealing with bailiffs and deputy district attorneys. My client received the minimum penalty for his offense. His drivers license was suspended for one year. But I was able to get him to drive legally to and from and at work since his job required him to drive. But I decided that would be my only criminal case. As a criminal attorney one has to learn to be treated like the client he represents. That might be fine for some lawyers. But not this one.
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