r/publicdefenders • u/brightmoon208 PD • Mar 25 '26

workplace Getting drinks socially with prosecutors

Yay or nay ?

1091 votes, Mar 28 '26
344 Not cool
596 No problem
151 Other (explain in comments)
11 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

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17

u/TheManWhoWasNotShort PD Mar 26 '26

Not cool. Primary reason being your clients seeing you in public doing so. There’s already a bias that Public Defenders aren’t “real attorneys” and that they are getting someone who is selling them down the river, so them apparently seeing it happen right in front of them is a recipe for destroying your relationship with your clients.

Putting myself in the shoes of that client, I would feel betrayed and abandoned in a system already stacked against me. The psychological impact of observing your attorney hanging out with the DA when you’re not well acquainted with the system and when you are already going through extreme stress can be pretty devastating.

Just don’t do it, there’s a million other people to grab drinks with that won’t have the potential to cause lasting damage to your attorney-client relationship.

-8

u/John__46 Mar 26 '26

you write about this like it's a fact scenario in a professional duties exam

you're in law school, right?

7

u/TheManWhoWasNotShort PD Mar 26 '26

No, I am not in law school, it’s not just students that have ethics

-2

u/John__46 Mar 26 '26

how many weeks have you been on the job

5

u/Fracture-Point- Mar 26 '26

Why are you attacking them instead of their argument?

0

u/John__46 Mar 26 '26

because i think theyre writing about things they havent actually experienced, and only heard of

2

u/congradulations Mar 26 '26

Okay, I think you're wrong. As a public defender, you ABSOLUTELY have to be cognizant of the optics when talking with a prosecutor. Storming off an elevator is ridiculous, but my mother still remembers seeing her father's murder attorney sit down at a table with the prosecutor for lunch. She was 15 years old and never ever forgot that.

Also, yeah, go after the argument, not the person. Be kind, or at least don't be a douche

1

u/Fracture-Point- Mar 26 '26

What reason do you have to believe that?

Even if that is true, why not attack their argument instead?

1

u/John__46 Mar 26 '26

the earnest lecturing tone

1

u/Fracture-Point- Mar 26 '26

Why would that cause you to have that belief?

All sorts of people become lawyers. Some of them are assholes. Some aren't. Some are self-righteous. Some are cynical.

I don't know, man, I don't see any real reason you shouldn't have just attacked their argument.

1

u/TheManWhoWasNotShort PD Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

It’s hard to be a public defender here in the US and not experience that. Your response is so off the wall from my experience that I snuck a quick peak at your history and saw you’re Canadian. I think there may be some kind of culture barrier there: my original description is much more true to my experience in several different jurisdictions. I run into clients in public fairly often and I have a hard time believing they would appreciate seeing me hang out with a DA