The Accidental Pro Bono Attorney
Monday, March 8th, 2010Last week, a couple of insightful attorneys wrote posts regarding fees. Brian Tannebaum, a hard-fighting criminal defense attorney in Miami, Florida, discussed the effect the economy is having on clients trying to get money back from their attorneys — particularly after the attorney has, through his hard work, managed to keep them from being charged with crimes.
Scott Greenfield’s post notes that people believe the economy must be good for criminal defense attorneys, since they believe more people will commit crimes. Scott not only debunks this myth, but notes the negative impact the Internet generally has had on hard-fighting criminal defense lawyers trying to feed their families.
Today, I was reminded of another perspective on this: the client who believes that since you successfully represented him in the past, he owns you for life.



