Excerpts from an interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover, mhoover@sbj.net. What type of law do you focus on in your practice? I primarily practice in the area of criminal defense, usually serious criminal defense, and personal injury. [Cases include] drug conspiracies in federal court, or cases of different sexual offenses in state court. On an average week, I am in a courtroom three to four times, so I have a pretty heavy courtroom practice, which is kind of the nature of criminal defense.
Is it difficult to defend clients if you know they are guilty?There are many people I represent who are responsible for either the crime they’re being charged with, or another crime that is encompassed in an allegation. Very often, my job is not to present them as innocent. It is to get the most fair resolution of the case for them, to make the consequences the most fitting – and just – that they can be for that criminal defendant.
There is a fairly wide range of punishments in our criminal justice system, and especially in state court. For example, you might have someone charged with a Class B felony. The range of punishment can be anything from probation to 15 years in prison. Everyone is not a candidate for probation, but it’s not just for (everyone) to spend 15 years in prison. So my advocacy covers more areas than a simple explanation of “Is this person guilty?” And I feel awesome about that work.
The Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association has nearly 1,000 members. What advice about bar involvement do you have for young attorneys?As a young lawyer, the reason I became involved with the bar is that I took someone’s good advice to get involved with the bar. Looking back on that experience, once I started participating in the bar, my entire world as a lawyer got a lot bigger in ways that were absolutely positive – meeting lawyers who I would never run into at the courthouse who have become friends or have taught me things, or people who I wanted to model professionalism after [or] learning what other people do and why it’s important, gaining resources, or lawyers, so that I can refer people I’m worried about to people I trust. You also find out about opportunities to help people, because we can do a lot of good.
How do you feel about being the third female president of the group?I practice with so many great lawyers – and great women lawyers – and people who make our community proud of the attorneys we have and the way that they work together.
I’m very proud, and very honored, and I took this role with a great sense of responsibility to present myself as a strong female in the role as bar president.
Why has access to justice emerged as a theme for the SMBA?One of the things that ties our bar together, with lawyers from all different practice areas, is a commitment to equal justice and a commitment to access to the courts. That doesn’t apply just to criminal defense lawyers or plaintiffs’ lawyers. It applies to everyone, because if you have a legal issue, and you cannot have your issue heard because of budgetary problems – which is a lot of what we’re dealing with right now – it’s potentially harming one of the branches of government that we should really be placing our trust and our faith in.
Why should businesspeople be keyed in to issues related to access in the courts?Even if it might not affect (them) that day, (if a) business would need to get in front of a judge on an injunction, and the court were to say they don’t have time to do that, or it might be two months or three months, I can’t imagine the type of hardship that would place on a business.
