Read this long piece of shit only if you really want to know about PD work. Otherwise TLDR.
I was a state PD for about four years before I went to a small firm. I still do some PD panel work. That means the PD Office hires me to rep clients where they are conflicted out. This doesn't pay my usual full rate, but I find this to be a good way to keep my hand in the big game and occasionally get a mention in the paper.
My full-fare private practice clients pay for defense on DUI/DWI, other driving offenses, drug possession, the occasional misdemeanor assault, and for the occasional juvenile case when junior decides to smash a bunch of mailboxes or whatever. Usually there's a joint in the ashtray or maybe somebody got a black eye. No blood, no dead body. Because the paying client typically has a job, a family who loves him, and little if any criminal record, he isn't likely headed to jail. We're fighting to keep his record clean and to keep him of off probation. This is easy work.
Representing poor people, as in doing public defender work, is a different matter. First off, poor people do crazy fucking shit. In the urban areas where I work it's all about street drugs, guns, violence, gangs, robbing, stealing, running from the cops, burning, raping, kid-touching, etc. These clients get arrested and usually sit in jail until trial time because they are already on probation or because they have shitty criminal records. So I have to visit them in jail, a place that smells like shit and death combined. A good many of my PD clients have no respect for me, lie to me, try to get me to lie for them, and generally fight with me every step of the way. They try to get me to believe stupid things. They don't know how to help themselves. They don't know good advice when they hear it. Not a week goes by that I don't scream at one of these guys and say something like "Shut up and listen to me you stupid piece of shit." Then I go to court and fight like hell for them in spite of who they are and what they do or did.
Get the idea? Public Def work is where criminal defense gets interesting. When my client gets arrested running from the cops holding 20 little bags of dope, a cheap 9mm with the serial number filed off, couple of thousand bucks in his pocket, and he's already backing up 10 years on a felony probation THERE ARE NO PLEA BARGAINS. There is going to be a trial. A fucking jury trial, no less. I'm going to swing my arms around, bang the table, and cross examine some cops. Wrong guy. Not his drugs. Not his gun. That's not the way the police general orders say to do it, is it? So you could not have seen what you say you saw, right? I'm going to find some doubtful shit in the state's version of events and I am going to explode those doubts until they are reasonable doubts. And that's only if I lose my preliminary motions with the judge. That's where we do the law arguments, before the jury comes in.
At one level I do this job because I believe the government's use of its power to incarcerate its citizens must always be examined with the closest scrutiny. It is necessary that the constitutional limits on government power must sometimes render seemingly correct arrests legally invalid. I believe that strict adherence to the law is the very essence of freedom from tyranny. I like to fight. I like to tell stories. I am generally skeptical about most things. I am fascinated by people with psychiatric disorders and the things they do. I like to curse. I'd rather not be writing legal memos or complex motions. I like the rush associated with winning from the defense side. I basically have to do this work because there aren't many of us in this world who will zealously defend a guy who probably did screw a nine year old boy in the ass or whatever.
HERE'S WHY YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A PD: STATE BUDGETS ARE ALL FUCKED UP. PAY IS LOW TO START, THEN YOU GET FURLOUGHS OR CUTS WHEN THE STATE SEES RED INK. Case loads can be huge. When you walk into court one morning with 18 cases it'll feel like you are playing bingo. Most people will never understand why you do what you do. Some people will hate you for doing what you do.
One more thing. A recent opening for an entry level attorney at my old PD Office had 200 plus applicants. I understand that many of the apps got their licenses last year but still had no employment. I also understand that the apps were from a number of name brand law schools. That's a big flood of qualified apps for a job that pays about $60k a year. This is a terrible time to be a new lawyer and probably the wrong time to borrow money to go to law school unless your dad owns a firm and you have a guaranteed job. I'd advise most people against law school at this time and for the foreseeable future. Either get a job or go to grad school for something academic where they'll give you a stipend and a TA gig.
