From public defender blogger Woman in Black:
I have been a lawyer 18 plus years now (gosh, I am old). Three times, since becoming a fulltime pd, I have testified about my representation of a client. I have never been found to be ineffective, but the possibility was certainly there. I did not like it, necessarily, but it did not get my panties in a wad, because I have always believed it is all about the client. We are supposed to do our best job for our client. We are not supposed to let our egos get in the way of representing the client. If we screw up, we are supposed to fix it by any legal means. It is not about us. It is about the people who go to jail or prison or get their kids taken away. The people who have to spend the next five years peeing in front of a stranger and having people drop by their houses and apartments at random hours. The people who can’t get the good jobs because they have felony convictions. The people who are addicted, and mentally ill, and seriously messed up, who are depending on us. We are supposed to listen to them - no matter if we are busy, if we are tired, if we are sick, whatever…we are supposed to listen to them, look at their cases, and advise them completely as to what is best in their circumstances. We don’t get to make excuses. We don’t get to have bad days. And if we don’t do what we ought to do, we sometimes have to face the music.
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