Large law firm advantage?

While searching for your criminal defense attorney, you will have a number of questions, such as: is the attorney qualified? Is the attorney aggressive?  Will the attorney keep you informed about your case?  One that you will rarely encounter is whether or not you should choose a large firm or a small firm.  The fact is that most criminal defense firms typically have only one or two lawyers.  This is, perhaps, a result of the intensely independent nature of a criminal defense attorney.  However occasionally, law firms spring forth boasting of a larger number of attorneys.

There can be certain advantages of a large criminal defense firm.  The first is coverage.  In a large firm, if one attorney is in trial, other attorneys can fill in for the absent attorney.  Ideally, by virtue of working in the same office, the substitute attorney will have some familiarity with the case and provide adequate counsel without the need for delay.  The second advantage is, theoretically, access to the minds of other attorneys.  No attorney knows everything, thus having multiple perspectives can be extremely helpful when evaluating your case.  The third advantage is that of resources.  Because there are multiple attorneys and, as a result, multiple incomes, money is pooled to share in cheaper and more advanced resources, such as bulk paper, advertising materials and copy machines.

However, in practice, large criminal defense firms seldom take advantage of these inherent advantages.  As a former member of two large firms, my experience has proven to me that large firms tend to be disorganized, cumbersome money holes.  Big firms mean big expenses, especially if they need a building to house other attorneys.  Big firms bank on impressing you, the potential client, with expensive furniture and other vanity items.  These things cost money and that money pressure requires a huge volume of cases.  To get those cases, large firms engage in massive advertising campaigns, which also costs a pretty penny.

The problem with the quest for ever-increasing cases is that a huge case volume undermines the whole point of having multiple attorneys.  Rarely will one attorney have any idea what other attorneys are doing in their cases.  Rarely do attorneys have the time to sit around and casually discuss all the cases.  Inevitably, the member attorneys will develop a huge motive to get their clients to plea as soon as possible, regardless of the merits of their cases.  The quicker they can get rid of a case, the quicker they can resume their attempts to get more cases.  More importantly, there is the high likelihood that your case will be forgotten and they will not inform you of your case’s progress.  You can’t make intelligent decisions about your case if they don’t tell you what’s going on.

The final problem with large criminal law firms is management.  You will rarely see firm partner(s) actually handling cases, except perhaps for the media-grabbing cases.  The partner(s) focus is on firm management, i.e.: getting more cases, not making sure your case is handled properly.  You think you’re hiring a large firm, but what you’re really hiring is a single, overworked and underpaid attorney.

A small firm, by contrast, usually has all the advantages of a large firm without all the overhead and administrative costs.  Fewer costs mean no pressure to settle your case or to increase case volume to unmanageable levels.  And a reputable attorney in the legal community will associate with plenty of other attorneys in the community to gain more than one perspective in a case.  In my firm, I am the sole attorney.  And I like it like that.  When I need a second set of eyes or I have need for coverage, there are a number of other attorneys in the community I can call on.  Moreover, resources are shared among the other, independent attorneys in my office, negating the large firm advantage.  Most importantly, I am the attorney on your case and solely responsible for its outcome, nobody else.  You won’t interview with me and get dumped on another nameless, faceless attorney in the office.

The surest way to determine whether or not you will have quality representation is to ask the prospective attorney when was the last time they defended a case at trial and how serious was the case.  Ask them how many trials they’ve defended criminal defendants in your community.  Ask other attorneys in the area about that firm’s reputation in the community.  If you like what they’re telling you, ask the attorney you interview with whether or not he/she is going to be the actual attorney working on your case.  If it looks like your case will be lost in the large firm large case volume, you’re probably right.