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Pursuing A Career As A Criminal Law Attorney

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A lawyer is one of the most common careers along with doctors and police officers. When someone asks a child what they want to be when they grow up, these are the choices that come to mind along with the idea of being a successful and intelligent person. Since these careers are so common many set out to be either a lawyer, doctor, or police officer without basic knowledge of the career. One type of lawyer is a criminal law attorney also known as a defense attorney that represents and defends the accused. This paper will focus on criminal law attorneys. In his paper, Theorizing Criminal Law Reform Okanagan College professor Roger Shiner states “Crime is seen as a threat to social stability. The task of criminal law is internally connected …show more content…

Criminal defense attorneys are often motivated by an intricate set of moral and ideological principals that belie their reputations as amoral (if not immoral) “hired guns” who, for the right price, would do anything to get their guilty clients off”(Gross). With any job there are some people who decide that they will do the wrong thing such as with so called “bad cops” but what some do not take in to account are the good cops. The same thing goes for criminal defense attorneys, because all of the people accused of doing a criminal crime are not guilty and without representation an innocent person could end up behind bars, therefore criminal defense attorneys are essential to the law system. In her journal, The Ethnics of Cause Lawyering: An Empirical Examination of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Cause Lawyers Margareth Etienne, the Associate Dean for graduate and international programs states “Lawyers are strongly advised to be zealous but neutral advocates of their clients’ interests. They also have a duty of loyalty to clients that may prohibit them from representing clients in cases where the attorney feels the pull of professional, personal, or political interests distinct from those of the client.” Lawyers have a tough job, representing someone that they know is guilty and it does call it to question their morals and how far they are willing to push beyond them. If a lawyer feels that their personal

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