FROM THE EDITOR

By BRAD A. ALLEN Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P.

In the Middle of the Night

“You may delay, but time will not.”
— Benjamin Franklin

“Time is always against us.”
— Morpheus (from The Matrix.)

The clock strikes twice in the middle of the night and the phone rings. It is a client and they have an emergency. A criminal law emergency. You desperately try to arouse your slumbering mind to determine what to do. Meanwhile, time is ticking away. You start to tell your client that, as they know, criminal law is not your specialty. The client informs you that they don’t need excuses, they need answers. Tick-tock. Tick-tock . . .
By this time you are awake enough at least to start with your list of client disclaimers. You start to say, “As you know I am not board certified in criminal law, and I have not had an opportunity to search the cases on point in this matter or to Shepardize those cases to . . .” Your client impatiently interrupts you, “I didn’t ask for a bunch of disclaimers, I have an emergency and I need your advice!” Tick-tock. Tick-tock . . .
Time cruelly marches forward, and the moment of deafening silence seems like an eternity as you and your client both wonder what you are going to do next.
Fortunately, to most attorneys who are not criminal lawyers, this fictitious scenario is nothing more than just that — a story. But to others, this is not a work of fiction, but an all-too-real nightmare they have to deal with. The reality is there are no easy answers to these types of situations. If there were, I would gladly share them in this column. That’s the bad news.
The good news is we are blessed with a tremendous group of lawyers who specialize in criminal law in the greater Houston area who can share their knowledge and experience with all of us. It has been over 10 years since The Houston Lawyer ran a special issue on criminal law. The time has come to have a criminal law issue again, and we are pleased to bring this to you now.
I know we are all busy, and time is working against us, but I hope you will carve a little of your time out to read the articles in this issue. I will not re-list every article and author here because this issue may contain more articles than we have ever crammed into one issue of The Houston Lawyer. I will share with you that this issue contains several articles that are designed to help the non-criminal lawyer with insight into the world of prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers. We also have multiple articles that provide strong insight in how to deal with some criminal situations. So, if you get that 2:00 a.m. call about a client with a DWI issue, you have an idea how to address the situation when time is of the essence. For these reasons, I believe this issue is not only a must-read for any criminal lawyer in Texas, but definitely worth the time investment of all attorneys.
I also encourage you to read the article The World of Forensic Medicine in Harris County, which is an insider’s look at the medical examiners office in Harris County. This article is very well put together and does a great job providing a rare insight into what the medical examiner’s office does and the important role it plays in Harris County.
On behalf of the editorial board I want to thank Alex Azzo for being our guest editor with this issue. Alex is a new member of the board, and he worked long and hard hours to put it together. Wendell Odom also contributed to this issue, and we thank him for his assistance. A huge thanks also goes to Michelle Cash, our articles editor, who tirelessly worked behind the scenes to make this issue a reality.
Time has no patience for delay, and I am sure I have pushed yours far enough. I hope you enjoy this issue, and I welcome your feedback regarding what you liked and what you think we can do better at The Houston Lawyer. Until next time.

< BACK TO TOP >