Will Democrats do anything? No.
Their job is to bully little guys who canât afford trial or to come to an arrangement regarding IP use or a license with the big guys. This case is the weird exception of the little guy backed into a corner and fighting back. (98% of civil cases donât go to trial.)
I worked at a 50-lawyer patent litigation office of a major firm out of law school and the office had 0 trials in the two years I was there.
Not so academic lawyers often claim to be âtrial lawyersâ. My unstated version of the brag is that Iâm a âsummary judgment lawyerâ whose clients donât have to go to trial. (This isnât actually true, but itâs close enough.) Mainly I give small biz clients the best result their budget reasonably allows.
Gaetz and company got all the free speech. This guy not so much. Not sure who is yelling at who but audio NSFW.
I think Iâm somewhat familiar as my sister works for âthe manâ as a defense attorney in the MedMal department of a large firm. Very few of their cases go to trial as well. She said what you did⌠If she sees one trial in her first two years sheâll be lucky
Sheâs as progressive as it gets and I was stunned when she decided to defend these big medical institutions, instead of going to bat for the little guy. Her reasoning was everybody is entitled to the best defense possible. Sheâs not a judge, jury, or legislator making the laws ???
I have a buddy whoâs an attorney, and he tells stories about when he used to shadow both Federal and State trials as a newbie.
He was amazed at the differences in attorney quality in State court. He remembers wandering into a trial, observing for a bit, and thinking âNice cross-exam.â It later became obvious to him that he was actually watching the direct exam with the attorneyâs own client.
Thatâs bullshit rationalizing
Med-mal has different dynamics because plaintiffs are almost always represented by contingency lawyers and damages are often related to insurance caps.
Very few IP cases involve contingency or insurance. Med-mal is relatively active trial work compared to IP, where summary judgment is often a key.
I donât regard either side as the better half in med mal cases. Many med-mal lawyers would treat ANY injury as a basis for med mal, but there is also actual malpractice. I donât have the background to know which predominants, but if itâs genuine malpractice with significant damages most defendants will be eager to settle.
Federal court is generally considered a higher standard of practice, but you get the full panoply in both. State court in some states would make me nervous, but California has a pretty good court system and merit-focused judicial appointment process (and the hardest state bar).
I mean everyoneâs gotta do something for a living. Unless youâre like one guy I know who doesnât work at all because he doesnât believe in corporate profit or something like that. Itâs pretty extreme
I think doing something for a living and getting paid for your labor is fine, and if thatâs the best way to support herself, thatâs fine. But justifying it by saying even these horrible corporations deserve good defense is bullshit.
Everyone under our system of justice deserves rigorous legal defense (even the incorrigible former guy)
Now if she were a criminal prosecutor or judge I might hafta disown her
What if you dont actually believe corporations are people?
They deserve defense, and their money ensures they receive defense. That doesnât mean individuals who defend them are immune from criticism. This applies less to your sister now, and more to rich assholes who can actually choose their clients. Like I said, I think she should do what she needs to do to make money within our system, I just think that particular line of rationalization is bullshit that ends up being used to insulate assholes from criticism.
Iâve always thought the test is
âIf I get 10% better at my job, will the world get better, worse, or neutralâ
So defending assholes is an immoral job.
Being an office manager for a tabacco company might not be, because while you have a very small tangential impact on smoking, if any, you make a bunch of peopleâs lives easier and less stressful for 40 hours per week.
âEveryone is entitled to the best defense possibleâ is a nice saying but clearly BS on its face. Ignoring that we know a lot of downtrodden people get shit representation or no representation at all in this country, by definition only a small % of attorneys can be the âbestâ and thus only a small % of the population can get the âbest defense.â
So if you consider yourself among the best then you are in a position to determine who actually gets the best representation, a soulless megacorp or a sympathetic human that is being screwed over.
The attorney who is actually in the best position to morally square representing a megacorp is one who is shit and knows it. Even a shitty megacorp is entitled to âa representativeâ in court. I might as well do it and let the attorneys who are actually good represent the clients who need the âbest representation .â
