Abraham Lincoln is often credited with the saying that “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.” If you regularly defend municipalities in §1983 cases, you’ve likely noticed a sharp increase in pro se litigation over the past few years — and many of those self-represented plaintiffs are proving Lincoln’s point. A major […]
About ten years ago, I served for the first time as embedded appellate counsel in a high-profile criminal case. Trial counsel brought me in early to assist with pretrial motions and to monitor legal issues as they arose. I wasn’t in court daily, but I didn’t need to be—the case was televised locally and available […]
Let me start with a confession: I don’t know exactly what artificial intelligence is. And I definitely don’t know what it will be a month—or a year—from now. That kind of humility feels important to say at the outset. Because this post isn’t about predictions. It’s about how our firm is using AI today, and […]
A few years ago, my firm—a small one at the time—was hired to take on the biggest appeal we’d ever seen. It was the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. The transcript? Somewhere around 50,000 pages. There was no big-team bravado. Just me and an associate, acting as exclusive appellate counsel in consultation with trial […]
Negotiation Lessons from Criminal Defense That Elevate Civil Practice I couldn’t believe I’d made such a boneheaded move. There I was—wedged into a slow-moving Starbucks line, about to be late for a meeting with a prosecutor. The mission? Negotiate a favorable outcome before my client’s case hit the grand jury. So I improvised: “Grabbing coffee. […]
In my years as a criminal defense trial lawyer, “discovery” wasn’t a process—it was an event. It usually arrived inside a creased manila envelope, thick with paper and stapled together like a grade school art project. Surveillance footage came in strange formats. Witnesses didn’t always give statements. If something crucial was missing, I had to […]
This story begins with me squarely on the horns of a dilemma. My then-boss and mentor taught me a great deal—but also carried a drinking problem that manifested in his reluctance to work afternoons. As a result, I was frequently placed in an awkward and precarious position. The routine would unfold like this: the partner’s […]