Criminal-Defense Articles > What differentiates a criminal defense lawyer?

What differentiates a criminal defense lawyer?
Suppose, a dissatisfied former employee of your firm has been making accusations against you to the United States Attorney's office. You regularly use a good law firm for your business matters. If an FBI agent wants to talk to you, should you let your civil lawyers respond, or should you look for a criminal defense lawyer who doesn't draft contracts or private placement memoranda but is always in court, defending people accused of crimes?

What distinguishes a criminal defense lawyer from other members of the legal profession?

Unlike any other you will ever face, a criminal investigation by a state or federal law enforcement agency will be a different experience. The goal of such an investigation is not merely some negotiated sum of money in settlement, or an injunction. This investigation's goal is you. These investigators are serious and even may put you in jail. They are people whose laudable goal is to uncover and punish criminal activity.

However, people who are drawn to careers in law enforcement are 'true believers' who become over-zealous, even self-righteous, and capable of losing track of notions of fairness and objectivity in their drive to get convictions. Far too often, before reasonable alternatives have been investigated, the case agents make up their minds. The "investigation" then becomes a search only for evidence that supports their foregone conclusion that you are guilty. Evidence inconsistent with your guilt is ignored or abandoned, or covered up.

You are dragged into the government's special arena, and trapped in the hands of a zealous, self-righteous bureaucracy. You are swept along in a process governed by written and unwritten rules very different from the rules that govern your other legal and personal affairs. Some of these rules exist to protect you from unfair tactics and wrongful prosecution. But, these rules will be ignored and subverted by your accusers until you have a criminal defense lawyer on your side.

The first instinct of people who are being accused is to defend themselves by explaining the innocence of their conduct to the agent. This is also the approach often advocated by the civil lawyers used by the accused for other matters, and this is to be expected. After all, the proper response to a civil lawsuit is a pleading called the "Answer", a document that responds to a plaintiff's complaint with denials, explanations, facts, and even counterclaims. Likewise, civil lawyers know that responding to an inquiry from a regulatory agency is often "mandatory" for regulated businesses, and may tend to treat an FBI inquiry as if the client were "required" to respond.

Unfortunately, the prosecution is often on a crusade in the criminal arena. The decision to prosecute has practically been made by the time an FBI or other law enforcement agent is ready to interview you. This is probably not the time to put any of your cards on the table. For one thing, the prosecution will not be showing its cards.

Until you are actually charged, you will have very little idea what the accusations against you are. Even then, the government will hide every bit of information about its case it can, and will give you information only grudgingly. Often the agents will deliberately lie to you, claiming some former employee or partner has admitted guilt and implicated you even though they haven't, just to get you to "give up" and "confess."

In this situation, the best thing to do is to refuse to speak with the agents and demand to talk with a lawyer first. This is your most fundamental right. Then you should call that civil firm you normally use and ask for the name of a good, experienced criminal defense lawyer, or do some looking on your own.


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