"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." ~Oprah Winfrey
There are two difficult realizations when you enter a service profession whose fundamental mission is to help people. First, not everybody wants your help. Second, you simply can't help everyone no matter how hard you try.
We feel that we have a fantastic work environment because we love what we do, and we love the people that we serve. This is in large part because we are selective in the clients we choose to work with. We have found that we are not a good fit for the following types of potential clients:
- People who do not take their criminal charge seriously, even though their family or spouse does;
- People who speak about the moral righteousness of their cause, but are unwilling to invest in their own defense;
- People who call to hire a lawyer the day before an important hearing or court date when they've had notice for weeks;
-People who believe they are hopeless or helpless to change the situation that the are in;
- People who blame lawyers for the predicament that they find themselves in;
- People who blame lawyers for not being able to completely extricate them from the predicament that they find themselves in;
- People who blame others for all of their problems in life and take no responsibility for their own actions;
- People who impugn the integrity of the judiciary or the prosecution in suggesting that they want a lawyer to "use his or her connections" to get a case dropped. Contrary to rampant urban legends and misunderstood reasons for case dispositions, the system doesn't work that way.
Like emergency health care services, we acknowledge that fees for criminal defense are unplanned, unforeseen, and unfortunately expensive. Our commitment to public service led us to create the Open Door Initiative to ensure that all potential clients who have financial hardship are able to choose the right attorney.
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