Maybe He Meant it as Praise?

 Posted on January 12, 2009 in Uncategorized

I've learned that Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, in a continuing legal education program (I'm not giving the State Bar of Texas $90 even to rip a copy of the video for this post), attacked the motives of all criminal defense blawgers, who in his view are "only out to make a name for themselves" in order to "get clients." As exhibits, he used an image of Defending People and of Ft. Worth criminal-defense lawyer Shawn Matlock's The Matlock Blog.

"Make a name for myself"? Sure, why not? The same accusation could be leveled at anyone writing publicly anywhere about anything. I don't mind making a name for myself; the more people read me, the more I can spread the gospel of freedom over safety.

But "get clients"? That rates pretty highly (right up there with "best crime blawg") as one of the silliest things said about Defending People. (It suggests that Bradley doesn't read me, and that makes me sad.) Anyone who reads Defending People and hires me anyway was, well, going to hire me anyway.

Bradley's critique is pretty rich coming from a politician who is a master of aggrandizing himself with his scared white flight suburban constituency and who, in the words of Dallas criminal-defense lawyer Robert Guest, "is only an election away from becoming Ollie the Cabdrivertising Criminal Attorney."