I graduated from law school in May, 2004. It is hard to believe it has been 20 years, this week, since I left Georgia State University College of Law. I had no idea why I wanted to go to law school. I found no passion or meaning working as a financial analyst for a large corporation and quit to go back to school in the fall of 2001. Everyone I knew in law school had a reason for why they wanted to become a lawyer except me. I just figured it was better than what I had been doing which was working in a cubical for a corporation that was eerily similar to Office Space.

I lucked into my dream career. A career I never envisioned before law school.

The one thing of the past 20 years that I am most proud of is that an introvert, who barely spoke as a kid and who hates public speaking, tries and wins major felonies. I work in a world of extroverts. As an introvert, I have to spend more time preparing in order to develop the spontaneity needed in a jury trial.

There is no other job I can think of that I would want to do more than that of a criminal defense lawyer. The defense lawyer-client relationship is like no other. It brings two very different people together who are caught up in a high stakes battle over freedom and in some cases even life. A client will tell the defense lawyer secrets that must be carried to the grave.

The thing I think I love most about this job is the competition. It is rare to have a job where you compete against a formidable adversary and then have strangers declare a winner and loser. It is a job that you can literally save someone’s life and keep a family together. It is also a job where you can be rejected by the jury and have someone you have grown to care about hauled away for life in a steel cage. In those cases, a little piece of myself goes with them. Regardless of what my client may or may not have done, I never judge them or lecture them. Everyone, regardless of the monstrous thing they might have done, is entitled to one person who speaks for them and tries to help save them. And quite a few are actually innocent. But guilt or innocence makes no difference in the preparation and advocacy.

I have spent the last 20 years trying to make civility in the courtroom a hallmark. I have never raised my voice at a prosecutor, judge or anyone else in the courtroom. The public views lawyers poorly and I think it is incumbent on my profession to do better. As a lawyer, you have to be a zealot for your client. But you can zealously advocate while also acting civil, ethical and professional at all times. The prosecutor and judge are rarely, if ever, the enemy. They are integral parts of our criminal justice system.

I hope to spend the rest of my life in the criminal courts standing next to the accused and giving them a voice. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution demands it. Whether the accused is guilty or innocent does not matter. They are entitled to be treated fairly.

I often think about the quote of the late Albert Krieger:

“The criminal defense lawyer marches into the pit, often unloved by everyone in the courtroom, but with the courage, strength and mind to make our Constitution live as a vibrant being in that courtroom on behalf of someone who at that moment stands for all the principles of freedom and dignity. It is a chore in many respects, it is difficult in all respects. It is tiring. It is demanding. But it is what we signed up for.”