The PDS “champions of liberty” are riding strong in this thread.

Anonymous wrote:My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

You should teach your children better about the teachings of Christ, but also you should teach your children about John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow, Thurgood Marshall, Bryan Stevenson . . . I could go on and on, the list of great American defense attorneys who have enshrined our constitution in courts of criminal law is long and esteemed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Damn how privileged to be disgusted by family law attorneys. People just deserve to stay in bad marriages, right?

No one said anyone should stay in a bad marriage. You are being purposely obtuse. But you shouldn’t have to empty out your kids college funds to pay an attorney to get a divorce. Most family law attorneys are more than happy to do this. In my state, they can take liens on your family home too.

I now practice in this area on a pro bono basis bc I was so disgusted with the industry and what I saw. 95 percent of these attorneys - including the ones with the most ‘successful’ practices, the ‘super lawyer’ designations etc. care most about making $$.

A lien on a home happens when somebody doesn't pay their bills. Anybody who worked for a client without getting paid can seek one, it's not some great mark of corruption. I am not convinced you are a lawyer.

Family law is really rough when there are kids involved and I'm sure some people feel they have to hire an expensive lawyer to ensure they see their kids or their kids get money from a parent. That sucks. I don't think that means lawyers who want to get paid for their time are the villains.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

Defense attorneys are the most important check on police power we have. I’m not anti-police - I have cops in my family - but I understand the need to have a system in place to make sure police are using their massive power appropriately.

My sister is a prosecutor and she would be the first person to tell you how important defense attorneys are.

I bet half of the people on here don’t even understand PE. I’m in it and people think we’re like the 80s corporate raiders. There are some firms like that but those are mostly bottom feeders. We generally buy up small companies who were not able to access capital due to their size or lack of performance or who have retiring owners/founders. We always keep the former owners as partial minority owners. We put all the employees on incentive plans with small ownership stakes. We generally try to roll up a few small companies together before exiting but often don’t exit. We get economies of scale in our inputs as the companies grow and are generally able to cut non-personnel costs by up to 30%, thus increasing the bottom line a lot. I’m not sure what is so awful about that? Several of our purchases would have shut down at the founders retirement had we not purchased them.

Anonymous wrote:My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

Defense attorneys are the most important check on police power we have. I’m not anti-police - I have cops in my family - but I understand the need to have a system in place to make sure police are using their massive power appropriately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just another plug for public defenders. The truly believe in the Constitution and the rights afforded everyone therein. It is their job to put the prosecution through their paces to ensure a fair trial, that the evidence collected was legal, the jury is as unbiased as possible, etc. They recognize that most of their clients are guilty, but our system requires due process. (at least it did before the current administration) They are truly overworked and underpaid. I had many friends from law school go into that type of work.

Eh, I know this is their spiel for why they do it, but going to trial and re-traumatizing victims in violent crimes and sexual assaults during cross-examination when you know your client did it and should cop a plea is never going to earn any respect from me.

The client is the one that gets to choose whether to accept a plea or not. You can't provide a subpar defense because you think they should have pled out.

Doesn’t change the fact that I have little to no respect for someone whose idea of providing an adequate defense to someone they know is guilty is trashing a rape victim or someone who’s been held up at gunpoint on cross-examination.

On the topic of "most" cases: As a public defender, I can tell you that most of our clients are arrested for minor offenses related to being mentally ill or poor. This represents the vast majority of charged cases. For serious offenses, most of the time the police have no idea what happened and just throw together a story based on whatever they can put together. We are regularly shocked by theories spun out of whole cloth. Many plead guilty just on the risk that the story will be believed because most people assume that everyone is guilty. Most cases plea out for one reason or the other, be it guilt or appearance of guilt, or a client's risk aversion.

Most crimes are high level economic or environmental crimes and are simply not investigated or prosecuted. This is where the bulk of thefts and deaths come from, if you are actually counting. They don't even get on the books because that is not the kind of theft or death law enforcement, or the general population, takes interest in. Most of us will happily be robbed by institutions.

Anonymous wrote:My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

Wow, seriously?

Do YOUR kids go to church? Because if they do, they've failed pretty entirely to understand the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anonymous wrote:My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

Your brother ensures the legal system works for all of us. You need to look at the big picture

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:unfairly perhaps, but they elicit a strong reaction from me.

Anyone else have similar irrational feelings about certain career paths?

And yes, yes, I know it’s not rational, I’m biased, etc

- go see your shrink instead of wasting time here

I hit a nerve, didn’t I?

Lolz. Go crawl back under your rock dude

Anonymous wrote:Damn how privileged to be disgusted by family law attorneys. People just deserve to stay in bad marriages, right?

No one said anyone should stay in a bad marriage. You are being purposely obtuse. But you shouldn’t have to empty out your kids college funds to pay an attorney to get a divorce. Most family law attorneys are more than happy to do this. In my state, they can take liens on your family home too.

I now practice in this area on a pro bono basis bc I was so disgusted with the industry and what I saw. 95 percent of these attorneys - including the ones with the most ‘successful’ practices, the ‘super lawyer’ designations etc. care most about making $$.

My brother defends really bad people as an attorney and I struggle with my feelings towards him as a result. People like stalkers, violent rapists, pedophiles. He does it for the money. My kids googled him and found out some stuff and began asking questions in middle school. They wanted to know how his family was so active in their church etc and yet he supported them by defending pedophiles. Honestly I didn’t have a good answer for that. Yeah, you can say “people are different and make different choices” but I felt like my kids were asking a legitimate spiritual question that I couldn’t really answer without trashing my brother and his family, I often wonder what my brothers own kids think about his profession and what questions they ask him.

Anonymous wrote:unfairly perhaps, but they elicit a strong reaction from me.

Anyone else have similar irrational feelings about certain career paths?

And yes, yes, I know it’s not rational, I’m biased, etc

- go see your shrink instead of wasting time here

Anyone who works in HR

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Damn how privileged to be disgusted by family law attorneys. People just deserve to stay in bad marriages, right?

People may or may not like their own divorce attorney, but they almost always dislike their ex’s attorney.

Sure, and I dislike that my neighbor's lawn guy makes a lot of noise and dust - but I'm not "disgusted" by him or by landscapers as a group. Most of the PPs sound completely unhinged.