The System Is Designed to Keep People Stuck.

QUESTION 1 OF 6

You built a criminal practice while publicly questioning the system you work in, through your podcast Who Judges The Judge and your TEDx talk. Has that honesty ever cost you a client or a case, and has it won you any?

Judges are expected to judge cases based on the facts and the law, without bias or prejudice, including towards a lawyer personally. I think where judges act on their own prejudice it is based on their values and belief system more so than their opinion about a lawyer's social media presence and/or their critique of the system itself. I have never criticized any particular judge or the role of the jurist in the system, so I would be surprised if my opinion or call to question it has had an impact on my cases.

The opposite is true of clients. I think that much of my professional success comes from vocalizing the frustrations, injustice, and unfairness that I see and hear my clients experiencing with the police, with the courts, and in custody.

I advocate for my clients beyond their individual cases, and I try to bring awareness to the general public about the criminal justice system in order to encourage more informed discussions and understanding of the big picture.

People don't get that from mainstream media. They hear about recidivism without understanding that the system is designed to keep people in it. I think when some clients hear a lawyer trying to explain this phenomenon to the public in plain language that encourages conversation, they want that person in their corner. And those are the clients that I want to be representing.

QUESTION 2 OF 6

You own JHG Criminal Law. What made you build your own firm instead of joining one, and what did the first year actually look like?

I worked for a criminal law firm for 5 years during which time I built up a pretty significant book of business, second only to my boss in a law firm of 30 lawyers. When I asked him for a compensation package that included commission on the files that I brought in, he not only refused but tried to tell me how much money I was costing the firm by bringing in so much work that additional support staff and students were needed to run my practice.

The math wasn't mathing for me, so I immediately took steps to start my own business. That was 2015. I've never looked back.

QUESTION 3 OF 6

Criminal defence is the hardest practice to market. Your clients find you in the worst week of their lives. What do they actually search for, fear, and misunderstand before they call you?

Many of my clients are already following me on social media or have heard my name in the circles they travel so there is little searching. By the time they are calling me, they usually know the types of cases I deal with and the work I do. Everyone facing charges fears the process, the cost of litigation, the stress they are causing their family, and the effect on the person's future prospects for travel, employment, volunteer work, and housing. I think the biggest misunderstanding tends to be about the process and procedures for court, especially for people who have never been through the system or whose previous lawyers did not take matters to trial.

QUESTION 4 OF 6

You explain law to the public constantly, on podcasts and social media. What has all that visibility done for your practice in real terms: clients, referrals, the cases you get offered?

Social media has always been the only form of marketing I do. I don't pay for SEOs or Google rankings or appearing in print media. I have always believed in being recognized by providing value to people. Explaining the law and the system, teaching people about police technology and trends, and sharing stories about cases and social issues has allowed me to engage with so many people over the years, which has obviously meant reaching current and potential clients but in a meaningful way.

QUESTION 5 OF 6

Defence lawyers get judged for doing their jobs, and you have built a brand on being unapologetic about it. What do you tell a young criminal lawyer who is afraid of being visible?

If you are afraid of being visible or worried about being judged for doing your job, then this is not the job for you. I know that sounds harsh but the better you are at this job the more people will criticize you. The best criminal defence lawyers are those with the thickest skin; they move through the world doing what they think is right and it is usually about something much greater than the individual case they are working on.

We are literally trying to protect our most coveted constitutional rights, the same rights that most people believe are necessary and absolute: the right to not be arbitrarily detained or arrested, the right to not be subject to illegal searches and seizures of our property, the right to be presumed innocent unless and until the government can prove otherwise.

When you know that each case you bring before the court is about trying to preserve these basic rights then it's easy to be unapologetic about it.

QUESTION 6 OF 6

Your line is "Question the System." If you could change one thing about how the justice system treats the people inside it, the accused, the lawyers, everyone, what would it be?

Unfortunately changing "one thing" about the system would change nothing at all. The system needs an overhaul and it's not just the criminal justice system but the larger systems that often feed into it: welfare, housing, addiction services, and health care (both physical and mental) all need to start working together if society can even start to heal.

The fact that each of these social issues is examined, legislated, and regulated in a silo is part of the problem. They are overlapping and the failures in each one affect the other.

For example, the kid (13 or 14 or 15 years old) growing up in abject poverty, in a community where drug and sex trafficking are rampant. He can go to school hungry and come home to a house where there's no hot water or he can choose to "go OT", be sent out of town to sell drugs and make enough money to one day live a life that he does not think he can access any other way.

He eventually gets arrested and in custody he meets other kids doing the same thing and builds a small network. He gets released either on bail or after serving a small amount of time given his age and the System expects he will have learned his lesson by being arrested and possibly convicted. Except he is back in the exact same home and community he started out in, only now he has been branded a criminal so the police know to target him and he can't get a legal job because of his conditions or criminal record. What options actually exist for him?

It's no different for the drug addict who keeps getting arrested for stealing while there are no beds in detox and you need to be sober before going to rehab but you are homeless and in pain every day.

We can't just fix trial delays or change our sentencing regime or build bigger jails or let more or less people out on bail and then expect a better system.