What I Hate About Being a Lawyer

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

The other day someone asked if there have been times over the years when I hate being a lawyer.

I’ve never had one of those days when I hate being a lawyer. There are plenty of things I do hate, but that isn’t one of them. This is what I really hate:

• Police who lie on the witness stand (or anyplace else for that matter).
• District attorneys who somehow can’t look past the law to see the person who has allegedly violated that law.
• Judges whose scales of justice bend more weightily toward re-election than actual justice.
• Lawyers whose first loyalty is to their wallets rather than to their clients.
• Clients who think they can outsmart their lawyers (they probably can, but the people you want to outsmart sit on the other side of the courtroom).

And what do I really love? When I can get a cop, a DA, a judge, a lawyer, or a client to remember their humanity, and respect the long line of experiences, choices, and mistakes that brought all of them to that particular point in time we call, now.