In Praise of PDs

Over at Concurring Opinions, Dan Filler has a post extolling the virtue of public defenders. He takes the state of Alabama to task for running a system in which less than 10% of the state is covered by a public defender service. While I agree with all of Filler's points in praise of PD offices, I wanted to highlight one in particular:

Finally, public defenders create - and support - a community where criminal defense is seen as virtuous and worthy of effort. Outside of the office, criminal defense lawyers are always subject to informal community sanctions. Ask any public defender, and she'll tell you how frequently she's asked "how do you defend those scum?" (Quite literally, a criminal defender cannot expect to attend a party and NOT hear this question. It follows, like night from day, the question: what do you do for a living?) In public, and even in court, DA's wear the white hats. Not only is the work unpopular, but it's also very difficult on a personal level. An indigent defense attorney must find ways to communicate, and build trust, with socially unattractive folks. Criminal defendants have often done very bad things. (Yes, even public defenders recognize this.) They're often very poor. They're sometimes homeless. They also aren't necessarily respectful of their attorneys. How do you do a good job for such a different, and perhaps unfriendly, person? It's hard, but the public defender community helps. Everyone supports each other, helping reinforce a commitment to the broad agenda (providing good service to a marginal population) and the narrow one (fulfilling the lawyer's duty to provide zealous representation to her individual client.) There's a lot of dark humor in the halls of the PD, but you'll never find more espirit de corps.

This is very true. In a world where lots of people think lowly of lawyers in general, criminal defense lawyers are the worst of the lot. I think, sometimes, that the high-paid big-name defense attorneys are more reviled, but I'm not sure. It's one thing to sell you're soul to make piles of money, but we PDs must be demented if we do it no the cheap, right?

Thankfully, I have friends and family who support what I do and see the value in it (or at least don't give me too much grief for it). Nonetheless, I'm glad I get to go to work every day in an office committed to indigent defense and work with colleagues (attorneys and support staff) who are making this kind of law their life's work.