Professional Responsibility/Ethics

Joseph Rakofsky’s Former Client Sentenced to 10 Years

May 4, 2012 Current Events

After pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, Dontrell Deaner has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised probation. Remember Dontrell Deaner? Just over a year ago, his name was all over the Internet in connection with the Joseph Rakofsky fiasco. Rakofsky was the lawyer, a few years out [...]

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Do Your Job, Mr. Prosecutor. And Turn Over the Evidence.

May 4, 2012 Criminal Procedure

The prosecutor has acknowledged that he should have turned over certain information to defense attorneys. That is what he says today. The case was back in 1984. Witnesses came forward when he was still preparing the case to say that there were two other men in the alley that night who were never charged.  One [...]

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Checking The Rules. Checking Them Twice.

April 26, 2012 Criminal Procedure

One of the things I miss most about working at the public defender’s office was the ability to get immediate feedback from colleagues on an issue. Do you know this judge or prosecutor? Have you faced this type of situation before and, if so, how did you handle it? And so on. A major drawback [...]

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Get Out of My Office: A Hypothetical Interview With a Potential Client

March 22, 2012 Law Marketing/Networking

A woman and her son come into the office for a consultation. At the end of the hour, the woman turns to me and tells me that they have also met with a number of other criminal defense lawyers.  “Why should we hire you?” she wants to know. I have to say, I am somewhat [...]

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Grace. Class. Loyalty to the Client.

March 2, 2012 Professional Responsibility/Ethics

“I want a new lawyer.” The defendant and his lawyer have clearly had some type of disagreement, and this is what the defendant, standing at the bar of the court alongside counsel, says to the judge. Who knows what the issue is?  Maybe the lawyer wasn’t returning phone calls. In this case, the defendant would [...]

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That Was The Right Decision, Judge. No Matter What I Said.

February 17, 2012 Juveniles

One of the first things they told us during the training for court-appointed juvenile cases was that we should never allow ourselves to become co-opted by the system. My first reaction upon hearing this was:  What the heck are they talking about? My only previous experience with juvenile cases had been in Philadelphia, and it [...]

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On Ethical Issues Raised by “Letter Lawyers”

January 29, 2012 Law Marketing/Networking

Mark Bennett refers to them as “letter lawyers”; they are the lawyers who, with the hopes of securing new clients, send out advertising materials to the people whose names and addresses have been listed on public arrest records. A friend of ours was charged recently with a misdemeanor traffic offense and received over 20 letters [...]

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On Criminal Defense Lawyers Who “Know Lots of People”

January 17, 2012 Law Practice

I am standing outside Judge Pan’s courtroom on the second floor of D.C. Superior Court with a man who has just been arraigned for felony assault.  Although he has been assigned a court-appointed attorney, he would like to hire private counsel.  I have a conflict so I refer him to my colleague and friend Michael [...]

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On Zealous Representation and Public Defenders

January 5, 2012 Law Practice

I will remember this.  This is what the prosecutor promises you. In another context, she could be intending this as a threat.  As in:  I will get you back for this.  In this case, she is trying to entice you into making a concession, and she is putting you on notice that she has a [...]

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Til Death Do Us Part: On a Lawyer’s Duty of Confidentiality

July 11, 2011 Current Events

One of the things I like to tell clients is that my duty to them of confidentiality lasts not until they die, but until I die. I know this statement is a tad precious, and I have to admit I stole the idea from a John Travolta movie. (Terminally-ill Travolta character:  “Will you love me [...]

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