<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

"How can you defend scum like that?"

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Reply 20

achwplc

everyone has the right to have a fair trail.

Reply 21

Ariel4

I think i would draw the line at sex offenders, especially child abusers. i would rather be unemployed than do that.

Reply 22

house badger

Ariel4

I think i would draw the line at sex offenders, especially child abusers. i would rather be unemployed than do that.

So would you presume them guilty when you were handed their case or would you use some of your precious time that could have been spent defending people with parking tickets finding out if they actually are guilty or whether they are the victim of a vicious smear or have accidentally been confused with a paediatrician?

Do you have a column for the News of the World yet?

Reply 23

SlyPie

Simple answer: Defense attorneys make good money.

Besides, how would you know for sure the defendant is guilty, unless he/she admits it? Maybe he/she is innocent and just wrongly accused.

Reply 24

house badger

SlyPie

Simple answer: Defense attorneys make good money..

Compared to other lawyers they don't. If you're good enough to be a barrister it's hard not to be tempted by the money the City or the Commerical/Chancery bar can offer.

Although your spelling makes me think your in America so it could well be different over there.

Reply 25

SlyPie

house badger

Ah, the flag could possibly be a giveaway as well. :wink:

In America, prosecutors make the least amount of money, so it'd be the opposite case. They make an average of 40,000 a year in Los Angeles, which would be incredibly below average.

Defense, corporate, international, tax attorneys, etc. all make good money.

Reply 26

house badger

SlyPie

Ah, the flag could possibly be a giveaway as well. :wink:

But people like public defenders make terrible money right? (I know these things I watch the OC :P ) That might be a better equivalent.

Reply 27

SlyPie

house badger

But people like public defenders make terrible money right? (I know these things I watch the OC :P ) That might be a better equivalent.

Public defenders make more than prosecutors for sure.

Generally, anyone employed by the government, barring garbagemen, make practically nothing in America.

Reply 28

thaddeus

For me, I want to be a lawyer because of my love for the law, and part of that is the fact that everyone is entitled to a fair trial; furthermore people are innocent until proven guilty.

A barrister from Durham Chambers came to my uni to do a talk on advocacy, and after the seminar I went up to him and had a chat with him, one of the things which he told me was that he was prepared to die for his brief, and gave the example of the lawyers in the trial of Saddam Hussein, how dangerous must their job be, but they still do it regardless. For that reason I have immense respect for them. And it is MY humble opinion that people shouldn’t be lawyers if they don’t show this sort of dedication.

Reply 29

chalks

"And it is MY humble opinion that people shouldn’t be lawyers if they don’t show this sort of dedication."

Thank you, that has cheered me up. I now have a mental image of various corporate lawyers being prepared to die for their client's M&A transaction.

Reply 30

thaddeus

chalks

Dedication for the Law

Reply 31

fundamentally

Crazy Mongoose

At what stage would you refuse to represent a client?

Would you defend the pedophile who argues a breach of warrent?
The cocaine-using rich divorcee mother who wants to take a child away from its poor but loving father? The dictator who argues the court has no jurisdiction?

And what if they have been falsely accused ? What if they are a member of an unpopular minority ( eg: Neo-nazi , Muslim, chav, drug user, gay, black, BNP, rent-boy-devotee, transsexual ) that is merely being used as a scapegoat by the police ?

What if you were accused of being a cocaine selling, pedophile ( carries criminal sanctions ) tomorrow simply because you were a nasty neo-Nazi, Muslim chav ( just socially undesirable, at least to some people ) ? Should you be denied justice ?

There is a good reason for the cab rank rule.

On the other hand:
There was a paper some time ago on how career choice is often used as a proxy for the loss of ability to chose clients. ie: if you decide to go into Intellectual Property, you will never have to defend a pedophile. ( Cant find it now, might have been in the OJLS, not sure now. It is probably in my large pile of no-longer-relevant-since-I-decided-to-not-do-law papers)

This goes someway towards explaining the relative unpopularity of criminal law as a career choice for brighter law students. The relatively poor pay compared to M & A and the fact that you have to associate with criminal scum is probably another factor.

On the other hand, even in M & A, if you are a mere associate in Slaughter and May, you might have to work for an armaments manufacturer or a company that supports dictatorships or the even US government ( oh, the horror ! ) . These are arguably worse than mere cocaine snorting , cannibalistic pedophiles since they kill so many people so very efficiently.