South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

When I first began my career at the public defender's office in Oconee County, South Carolina I had been told that criminal defense, and public defender work in particular, is a thankless job. Many thank you's, cards, and hugs later, and now in private practice in Myrtle Beach, I have to disagree.

Seeing a client dancing with joy when they find out they are being released from jail is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in this job. Hearing a grandmother whispering "thank you Jesus," her soft voice cutting through the thick silence in-between each of three counts of "not guilty" read by the clerk at the end of a trial is another. I keep a bulletin board in my office with thank you cards pinned to it, and it helps to go to it and read them when times get rough.

If you don’t like your job, and you don’t like your clients, you need to find another occupation – criminal defense attorneys hold their clients’ lives in their hands, sometimes literally. I have found that, for the most part, I like my clients, and they tend to reciprocate. On varying levels, I can identify with most of my clients as human beings.

Another piece of wrong advice that I often hear is don’t get too invested in your clients, and I wholeheartedly disagree with this also. There is something of a sliding scale when it comes to emotional investment in a client and results. If I become a friend to a client, and become emotionally invested in their case, I will fight that much harder to win their case and to get the best result possible, just as I would for a friend or relative who is not otherwise a “customer.” On the other hand, if the investment does not pay off, and if I lose this case, the pain that I feel personally is that much greater as well.

If I remain always detached from my clients and their cases, I can still work hard and analyze their case, I can still take a case to trial and argue legalities, but there is no passion, there is no caring to convey to the jury, and it will be reflected in the odds of achieving the best result as well. I am more likely to lose that case, but I do not suffer when it is lost.

Although there is a balance, and there are boundaries to what can and cannot be done, clients only benefit when their lawyer cares and becomes invested in their defense, and that is how it should be. And, you will get more thank you’s at the end of the day.