An interesting article by Arthur D. Burger, New Jersey Law Journal: Why Do Lawyers Lie? One Word: Narcissism:

Ratner explains that extremely narcissistic people are so "needy for the affirmation of success," that the idea of losing is seen as unbearable. They will therefore use the psychological defenses of "rationalization" and "denial" to enable themselves to intentionally mislead -- and even lie -- if they believe that is the only way to win.

Ratner states that as a result of this rationalization and denial, they do not see themselves as having done anything wrong. Instead, they see themselves as justified , because they were acting for a "higher purpose." He explains that the power of rationalization can be enormous. It can even be seen in such horribly extreme examples as when the killing of innocent civilians by terrorists is seen as "heroic."

It is useful to understand this dynamic in our adversaries so we know what we are up against , and see the element of insecurity and desperation driving such behavior. It is also useful, however, to examine ourselves and look for similar symptoms.

None of us likes to lose, and nearly all of us, at times, get carried away in litigation by a certain "bunker mentality," through which we see our side as "good" and the other side as "bad." Ratner says that it's important to take one's own temperature during the course of a contentious case to assess whether you have maintained perspective. One good way to do this, he says, is to discuss the case with a colleague or at least to take time to calmly review the record and look at the facts.

As a general rule, I don't think this applies to criminal defense lawyers, but, perhaps, some.

Law firm overhead continues to grown while revenue slumps, not just for criminal defense lawyers--all private practitioners. Demand for paid legal services is off. Dan DiPietro, Bumpy--and Slow--Ride for Law Firms Through 2008, on AmLawDaily:

Since 2001, the legal industry has been characterized by double-digit profit growth, strong demand, solid productivity, and controlled expense growth. That all started to change in the second half of 2007, and now, the first half of 2008 looks very different from the previous six years. In a trend that started last year, expense growth this year has stayed relatively high, driven largely by continued growth in lawyer head count. But revenue growth was the weakest it's been in the seven years since we began tracking quarterly results. Demand for legal services was also the weakest seen in the period from 2001 to 2008.

Like we need them to tell us? One-third the calls I get are people looking for free legal services and don't know about the public defender.

Lawyer's claim that he waived a fee to the client [here, a PI case] who was a friend and the client kicked back the fee to the lawyer to avoid it going through the firm's books resulted in a recommendation for disbarment. In re Sharp, La. Atty. Disc. Bd., 07-DB-019 (July 30, 2008).*

On ABAJournal.com today about the Collin County Texas law office search: 50 Lawyers Pack Court to Support Solo Whose Office Was Searched. My previous post from July 19th is here.

The Texas Lawyer has this article: Controversy Over the Police Search of a Collin County Law Practice

Two AUSA's are under state and federal ethics investigation for directing a deputy sheriff to record a represented person, his former boss the Sheriff. See ABA's Two Prosecutors Face Ethics Probes for Secret Recording of Suspect.