There seems little to attract the next crop of legal graduates to take up a career in the criminal courts. With fees being driven down and the powers that be putting a price on a person’s right to a fair trial even leading QC Donald Findlay finds it hard to  conjure up a reason for anyone wishing to ply their trade in the criminal courts these days, that is except that he still feels it is one of the most important roles a person can assume in any civilised democracy.

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As it will soon be the graduation season, I was contemplating  how I would react to a law graduate who told me that they wanted to ply their trade in the criminal courts. My first thought was that I should  reach for the Yellow Pages and suggest that they try under P for psychiatrists or T for Toffs’ lawyers.

But that might justifiably produce the response that I should try a dictionary under C for cynic. So what would I say? My advice would be to go ahead, but – and it is a big BUT.

Criminal law is something you must care about and for which you must have a passion.  After the preservation of life, the protection of liberty is the weightiest burden one may be asked to bear. A criminal justice system is the heart beat of a truly free society.

A jury is the true bastion of democracy. 15 people chosen entirely at random charged with the responsibility of determining the fate of a fellow citizen. It is the fundamental duty of the criminal lawyer to keep the system honest. To resist any attempt by the State to restrict the right of an accused person to have a fair trial.  To insure that guilty people are convicted, but only guilty people, by putting every legitimate hurdle in the way of the prosecution’s attempts to prove the case it brings.

But as a criminal lawyer you may expect little credit for this. A significant section of your professional colleagues will regard you are practising at the vulgar end of the market.

You will be asked how you can possibly defend all these guilty people. Try telling your questioner that the people you represent are presumed to be innocent, and the response will be, ‘but you and I know differently’.  In a high profile case when an acquittal results, do not expect the media to trumpet this as a vindication of our legal system. The coverage will rest upon an undercurrent that, yet again, another guilty man has got away with it and something has to be done about it whatever the ‘it’ is.

These are challenging times for criminal lawyers. Too many politicians regard the quality of the criminal justice system as being measurable in pound signs. Fees are being driven down. Now, I accept that if you chose to work for public money, it is your choice and you cannot expect to paid as you would be in the private sector. But when fees in Legal Aid cases may be less than one quarter of those available in the commercial market place, what incentive is there for young lawyers?  

You will find it increasingly difficult just to do a good job for your client. In investigating crime, the State has all the aces and the resources. You will have to scrabble around with what you get.  

In preparing a defence, it is clear to you that you require the services of an expert. Sanction may be refused because the Legal Aid Board considers an expert to be unnecessary. In other words, someone who goes nowhere near the coal face knows better than you do how to do the job.  Or, if you consider the case requires a particular expert, you will be told to seek competitive quotes – i.e find someone cheaper. So you chase around trying to persuade experts to give up their time to submit estimates as if you were trying to find a plumber to fix the central heating. When you receive permission to employ the cheapest, you better not be surprised to find that your case is at the bottom end of the expert’s waiting list.  Then a judge, having forgotten what the real world was like, will demand to know why you cannot make a report available to suit the court’s timetable.  

But the life of a criminal lawyer is a glamorous one, until you find yourself sitting in a car park in the back of beyond on a cold, wet, miserable December night waiting to meet with a client remanded in prison.  A client who has been convicted of no crime and has been deprived of no right other than liberty (temporarily). But you will only get to see him at a time which suits the prison authorities.
But despite all of this, yes I would urge the young lawyer to pursue a career in the criminal law. Because it matters. Because liberty matters. Because the State’s attempts to restrict personal freedoms should be resisted at every turn by every legitimate means. And because we need young lawyers, provided they can look up a dictionary under B for Bolshie!