Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t

From Injustice Anywhere, a public defender currently working in Washington State, comes this advice for new and aspiring public defenders:

Don’t do it unless you believe in what you are doing. You will rarely get fulfillment from this job if you are relying on the gratitude of individual clients. Don’t get me wrong. The moments when you get that are fantastic—I have shed many tears in those moments. But, in my experience, they are few and far between (albeit more frequent in juvenile cases than they were in adult land). I believe that your reward—your fulfillment—has to come from knowing that the rights of everyone in this country are being protected because of the work you and your fellow defense attorneys are doing for individual clients each and every day.

That’s just a bit of the great perspective to be found in Injustice Anywhere’s (IA’s) interview withPublic Defender Stuff as part of the latter’s Monday Musings series. PD Stuff has emerged in the last year as both a clearinghouse for indigent defense news and as one of the best indigent defense blogs in its own right. Thank you, PD Stuff!

IA’s words of wisdom make me wonder: What words of wisdom would other experienced public defenders give to their new and aspiring colleagues? [tags]advice[/tags]