I don't specialize in high-profile cases. Instead, I handle the most important case in the world: your case.

Some of my colleagues seem to think that people accused of crimes want their cases to be "high-profile." They brag about the high-profile cases they've been involved in.

I wonder why.

I will do everything in my power to keep a case from becoming "high profile." I believe that when client's face starts appearing on the nightly news something has already gone seriously wrong with the defense. When it has happened on my cases, it's usually been before I was brought aboard. It has been my experience that the people who hire me would rather not have their cases make the news, so I do everything I can to cool the publicity down.

The bad news about high profile cases is that, in the current political client, the presumption of innocence doesn't get you very far. When the public sees your face on the news in connection with a crime, your jury panel has been poisoned. Almost everybody who hears that you've been accused of the crime is going to come to court assuming that you did it. The best you can do in most high-profile cases is counteract the negative publicity, and try to quiet things down.

The good news is that, while your case is the biggest news in your life and might make the newspaper in your community, the chances that your case will get more than a passing mention in the media are minuscule -- one in tens of thousands. Some cases do become high profile, and someone has to handle these cases (any competent lawyer will have a few high profile cases in his career, and I've handled my own fair share of them) but lawyers who handle lots of high profile cases don't advertise the fact. High-profile cases are their own advertising.

If a lawyer claims that he specializes in "high-profile" cases, you can test the truth of his statement. Take a few minutes to search the internet for his name. Does his name pop up only in connection with his advertising, or elsewhere? Search USA Today's archives for his name. Do you still feel comfortable hiring him?

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Mark.