So it was refreshing to run in to criminal defense lawyer Mirriam Seddiq's Not Guilty blog.
Mirriam isn't one of those female lawyers who sits around Starbucks and complains about how men have kept her from becoming a partner somewhere, or pretending that any man jokingly using the word "bitch" is evil. Mirriam, is a real lawyer, with a real career who concentrates on what's important - lawyering, advocating, writing, maintaining a thick skin, and not worrying about "the way things are."
Mirriam also has no problem referring to women as "chicks."
While searching for other female criminal defense attorney bloggers, Mirriam ran into a book: Emotional Trials - Moral Dilemmas of Women Criminal Defense Attorneys.
She doesn't understand the dilemma.
If a person, in this day and age, asked me if I felt I was betraying my gender by representing men accused of sex crimes I think I might throat punch them. We all get the question "how can you defend those people" and there are some great answers to that question, from "I have no soul" (courtesy of Carol from Public Defender Revolution) to various discussions about the constitution, rule of law, etc. Those come at you from a, I guess you could call it a gender-neutral perspective, everyone wonders how you can defend someone accused of rape, or murder or whatever. Or, do people really think "oh, you are a guy, you totally GET rape so its easy for you to defend someone accused of that.
No Mirriam, you're not doing what I think you're doing - you're stepping off the reservation. You are not supposed to propose that male and female criminal defense lawyers have the same dilemmas. You are supposed to separate men and women in every possible way, real, or imagined. Are you really saying that men and women criminal defense lawyers are both against rape?
Mirriam is going to read the book though, because I'm curious to see what feminists think of what it is we do.
Then she seals her fate as not a female lawyer, but a lawyer:
But I will tell you this much, I don't have a moral dilemma. I am not suffering. I don't hold my head in my hands and fight back the tears over my failure to hold up my feminist views. I don't lose sleep at night because I choose (hopefully someday again) to represent people accused of horrible things and I certainly feel that I do my gender a favor by playing this game with the boys.
Refreshing.
Mirriam wants to play with the boys. She doesn't want to spend her time, her career, looking for reasons why things are different for her. I've never met Mirriam before, but I assume she believes the difference between a male and female lawyer, is that one has a penis and one has a vagina. I believe if someone called Mirriam a "bitch," she would either say "thank you," or say something so vile and rude that her male accuser would throw up the white hankerchief. I don't believe she'd go crying into that good night.
I assume Mirriam is not the darling of her feminist colleagues, who she quickly walks by, on her way to defend her clients.
Brian Tannebaum is a criminal defense lawyer in Miami, Florida practicing in state and federal court, and the author of The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer.
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Mirriam,
ReplyDeleteIf you're reading this, know that I second Brian's comments. I read lots of the posts on your site yesterday when I learned of you through Simple Justice. You are funny and smart, and a good role model to a new blawger like me, notwithstanding the vagina. Keep it up. (The blawging, that is.)
I guess on one level I can see the need for criminal defense attorneys. The system must have checks and balances. I just don't understand how you guys can sleep at night sometimes knowing that if you do your job properly in some cases (where your client really is a guilty predator) your successful advocacy will free the guy to harm another innocent victim. I am not talking here about defending a drunk driving charge or even minor theft or forgery cases. Take a case where your client abuses his wife and threatens to kill her. You perform courtroom magic and the guy walks free...and then goes home where he then kills his wife. I guess that is why there is the wall of rationalizations about "social justice" and civil rights put up. Gotta sleep at night and look in the mirror after your client does something terrible, after all.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has had the pleasure of meeting Seddiq in person, I can tell you she is as kickass in person as she is on her blog. She also plays a pretty mean game of Texas Hold 'Em. So, no, she is not concerned about petty slights, either real or imagined. She is focused instead on getting the job done for her clients.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting to post something on here, since I am humbled by it and didn't have the appropriate words. But let me just say thank you.
ReplyDeleteMirriam,
ReplyDeleteDon't be humbled by it. Brian is one my dearest friends in the world and there are times I could cheerfully kick his teeth down his throat.
Anonymous: Defense attorneys have a legal and ethical duty to do their job regardless of who their client is. You're advocating getting rid of defense attorneys for certain clients.
ReplyDeleteSo.
A former girlfriend charges you with domestic assault. She's jealous, vindictive, on drugs, mentally unstable, who knows. You're completely innocent.
Now according to YOU, you do not deserve a defense attorney, because you've been accused of domestic assault, and therefore you are already presumed guilty. Screw the law, screw the presumption of innocence, we KNOW you did it.
How crazy is that? Your position is absolutely ridiculous.