Carolina Criminal Defense & DUI Lawyer UpdatesLet me start by saying this. I love lawyers. I am one. I am a former president of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ), an association of criminal defense, personal injury, and family law lawyers.
Some of my best friends are lawyers. The profession as a whole is comprised of noble, hard-working professionals dedicated to justice, due process, and helping others.
AND if you ever want to truly test your patience, try defending an attorney when the tables are turned, and the lawyer becomes the defendant.
I have done it more than once. Each time, I have emerged a slightly more weathered, a slightly more philosophical human being. Here is what nobody tells you in law school or even after years of practicing.
The Danger of Knowing Just Enough
Representing a regular client generally means they trust you and need answers to their questions about the criminal charges. They hire you because you know things they don’t. They listen, they ask questions, and then, in most instances, they let you do your job.
Lawyer clients? Good luck with that.
From the moment you sit down together, you are not meeting with just a client.
Sometimes you are meeting with a co-counsel who happens to be facing either felony or misdemeanor charges and has somehow convinced themselves that a foundational understanding of legal principles is the same thing as knowing how to run a criminal defense.
It is not.
Knowing what a motion to suppress is and knowing when, how, and whether to file one in a specific case are two very different things. Lawyers understand this distinction perfectly well when they are the attorney. They sometimes forget that entirely when they are the defendant.
Here is the maddening part. They are not completely off base. A lawyer client will occasionally spot a real issue or raise a legitimate concern that others might miss.
But there is a wide canyon between having a general intellectual grasp of criminal law and actually practicing it day in and day out.
Lawyers know the vocabulary. They generally understand the framework. What they sometimes miss is the judgment that comes only from living in this specific area of law, and that gap is precisely where things can go sideways.
Lawyers Are Extraordinarily Demanding
Normal clients call periodically to check in, especially right before a court appearance. They send an email or text when something important comes up. They understand, more or less, that you have other cases.
Lawyer clients tend to operate on the assumption that their matter is the only matter, that you are available at all times, and that expecting an immediate, real time response to a non-urgent email is problematic at best.
Attorneys want to review every filing before it goes out. Actually, that’s appreciated. Lawyer or not, we want our clients to review filings and confirm their accuracy. Indeed, when possible, we prefer verified pleadings.
But lawyers also tend to want to negotiate the wording of every paragraph, debate comma placement, and relitigate the strategic decisions behind choosing battles.
They will copy you on emails “just to document things.” Not because there is anything in them that requires your attention, but because somewhere in the back of their mind, having a record feels safer than not having one.
They will send you case law you already know. They will say things like “just thinking out loud here.”
It is a subtle thing.
They may not even be aware they are doing it. But you will notice it, and it will leave a small and persistent unease that is hard to articulate but impossible to ignore.
It feels like distrust dressed up as organization.
Address it quietly and directly the moment you sense it taking hold. You are their lawyer. If they cannot fully commit to that, you need to know it now.
Charge More, Not Less | The Discount You’ll Live to Regret
At some point during your initial conversation, it is coming. The ask.
It might be direct, or it might be wrapped in the language of collegiality and concern for a fellow member of the bar. But make no mistake, it is coming. A discount. A favor. A “work something out between us” arrangement. In the most brazen cases, a freebie outright.
Do not do it.
This is the trap that flatters your ego before it ultimately serves to destroy the professional relationship. You want to help a fellow attorney. You want to be seen as generous, as someone who takes care of someone truly in need, someone who has themselves helped countless others.
It feels like the right thing to do. It is not.
Here is what actually happens when you represent a lawyer at a reduced rate or, worse, for free. They do not value your work, your opinions, your time, or your other professional commitments.
The client who pays full freight respects your time because they feel it every time they write a check. The client who got a deal feels, somewhere in the back of their mind, that they are doing you a favor by letting you handle their case. That is an impossible dynamic to work inside of, and it can poison the entire representation.
If anything, a lawyer client warrants a higher fee than your standard rate, and you should not feel a moment of guilt about that.
Carefully consider and honestly assess what this case will actually cost you. If you work on flat fees, as most criminal defense attorneys do, you build that number around an average case with an average client.
A lawyer defendant is neither.
You will spend more time on the phone. You will review more unsolicited memos and draft motions they emailed you at midnight. You will have more strategy debates, more second-guessing, more emotional conversations that have nothing to do with the actual legal work but are absolutely part of the job.
You will worry more, prepare more, and explain yourself more than you ever would with anyone else.
Price for the case you are actually going to handle, not the one you wish you were getting.
The Stakes Feel Higher Than They Often Are
Here is where a little perspective goes a long way, for both of you.
The most common charge we help lawyers with is driving while impaired. The honest truth is that a DWI for a lawyer in North Carolina is largely the same legal matter as it is for anyone else. The statutes apply equally. The process is the same. The range of outcomes is the same. A first offense DWI does not automatically end careers and does not make the evening news.
What it does do is embarrass them in a way that cuts deeper than it might for other defendants. They have argued in courtrooms. They have counseled clients through similar situations. They have colleagues who will find out, and they know it. That embarrassment is real and it deserves acknowledgment, even when the legal stakes are not nearly as dramatic as your client has convinced themselves they are at two in the morning.
That said, context matters. Certain charges, certain facts, or certain patterns of conduct can create genuine professional consequences that go beyond what happens in the courtroom. A serious felony is a different conversation than a traffic-related misdemeanor. Repeat offenses carry more weight. When the circumstances genuinely warrant concern, your client’s anxiety is proportionate and you should treat it accordingly.
But when a lawyer sits across from you convinced that a first-offense DWI is going to unravel everything they have built, part of your job is to be the calm and experienced voice in the room. They know the law in the abstract. What they need from you is the practiced, ground-level judgment that tells them what this charge actually means for them specifically, not the worst-case scenario they have been rehearsing in their head.
Lawyers, Like Other Clients, Have Difficulty Separating Their Emotions from the Legal Reality
Lawyers are trained to be analytical. Objective. Detached. We pride ourselves on it.
Then one of us gets charged with something, and a lot of that goes directly out the window.
Lawyer defendants take it personally. For most attorneys, their professional identity isn’t just what they do. It’s who they are. An accusation isn’t just a legal problem. It’s an attack on their integrity, their judgment, their reputation, and the narrative they’ve built about themselves over an entire career.
This means that conversations that should be purely tactical can easily become emotional.
You will spend as much time managing the psychological dimensions of this case as you will actually working it. That is not a complaint. It’s a reality, and arguably, it’s part of the job. It is also exhausting.
There Is Only One Captain of the Ship
Some lawyer clients are remarkably easy to work with. They hire you, respect your boundaries, and let you do your job. Others require a periodic reminder of who is actually running the defense, and you have to be comfortable delivering that reminder without hesitation or apology.
This is not about ego, and it is not about dismissing their input.
Listening to your client is part of the job, and a lawyer client very well may raise something worth hearing.
But listening is different from ceding control, and there is a point in some representations where that line needs to be drawn clearly. You are the attorney of record. You are the one who knows this courtroom, this prosecutor, the judge’s temperament, local protocols, practices, and court preferences.
You are the one whose judgment and experience the client is paying for, and ultimately, that’s why they hired you.
When a client starts trying to steer, you don’t give up the tiller.
You may need to have a bit of a heart-to-heart. You do it privately, you do it respectfully, and you do it early before the dynamic gets entrenched.
Something as direct as reminding them that you value their perspective and that the final call on strategy is yours is usually enough to reset things. Most lawyer clients, when they hear it stated plainly by someone who is not going to be moved off of it, will acknowledge the point and get back in their lane.
The ones who will not are telling you something important about how the rest of the representation will go. That is useful information to have sooner rather than later.
And then file your Motion to Withdraw and wish them all the best in the future with alternate legal counsel.
Professional Discretion | The Courthouse Run-In
Discretion is a standard part of our work, but it takes on a different dynamic when you and your client move in the same professional circles. You will run into each other at the courthouse or at bar events.
The easiest approach is to let them set the pace of the interaction.
If they want to chat, that is fine. If they prefer a quick nod and a move to the next conversation, that is fine too. It is just part of the professional distance that comes with the territory.
You might also find yourself on the receiving end of a curious question from a mutual colleague. When that happens, a simple deflection or a quick change of subject can help get you out of an awkward conversation.
Why Lawyers Help Lawyers
Probably just about every criminal defense attorney who has represented a fellow lawyer has asked themselves the same thing at least once. The law does not distinguish between a defendant who practices it and one who has never set foot in a courtroom, and neither should you.
Do not go in expecting gratitude.
Most clients are not particularly thankful nowadays. That is not cynicism. It is experience.
People who get charged with crimes did not ask to be in your office. They feel targeted, they feel wronged, and even when you deliver a favorable outcome, a surprising number of them walk out the door quietly resentful that they had to pay for the privilege of getting their life back.
Indeed, you are often a living reminder of a rough patch they would rather forget.
Lawyer clients are no different in that regard, and in some ways the aftermath is more awkward. You may run into them around the courthouse, at bar functions, and at CLE events.
Something slightly uncomfortable tends to hang in the air when you do. You are not going to bring it up. They are certainly not going to bring it up. But you both know what you know, and you both know what you went through together, and that shared knowledge has a way of making small talk feel strange.
Maybe they say thank you when it is over. Genuinely, maybe they do.
But somewhere in the back of their mind, you are the person who saw them at their most vulnerable, who knows the details they would prefer did not exist, and who will forever be associated with one of the worst stretches of their professional life. That is a hard thing to just get past at a cocktail reception.
So you do the work, and then you let them keep their distance if that is what they need. It is not personal. It is just the nature of what you do.
About the Author | Bill Powers
Bill Powers has spent more than 30 years representing people facing some of the most difficult moments of their lives, including, over the years, a good number of fellow lawyers who found themselves on the other side of the criminal process. If you want a straight conversation with someone who truly enjoys helping clients, even if they also happen to be a lawyer, call or text the Powers Law Firm 704-342-4357.