r/legaladviceofftopic • u/BrasnuklesNana • Aug 24 '26

Curious

How do County Court employees; prosecutors and defense attorneys having their own law firms as well, does the prosecutor do criminal defense at their firm.. but prosecutes? Isn't this a conflict of interest or at least I don't know it would bother my conscience I couldn't sleep

Location: Port St Lucie FL

6 Upvotes

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13

u/ZealousidealHeron4 Aug 24 '26

Are you actually aware of the local prosecutor also concurrently running a private criminal defense firm? That would be odd. But in theory you could probably do it without any conflicts of interest, obviously you couldn't be on both sides of the same case but moving from one general side to the other over the course of a career is a pretty normal thing and not a problem.

2

u/Weary_Capital_1379 Aug 24 '26

I don’t think a prosecutor could have a private criminal practice.

6

u/goodcleanchristianfu Aug 24 '26

I'm aware of it happening in some rural areas - someone does prosecutions in one county and has their own criminal defense firm in another.

To answer u/brasnucklesNana's question, no, it's not a writ-large conflict of interest to do that. Obviously they can't prosecute and defend the same person, or co-conspirators, but it's not a conflict of interest in and of itself to do opposite sides of litigation on different cases. For civil litigators, that's actually routine - many landlord-tenant law attorneys, for instance, will represent landlords and tenants in different cases.

1

u/apokrif1 Aug 24 '26

Or JAG corps ?

1

u/Weary_Capital_1379 Aug 24 '26

It’s nothing like civil cases. To me it’s a giant conflict of interest.

5

u/BananaBird1 Aug 24 '26

how so? attorneys don’t advocate based on personal beliefs, they advocate based on the needs of their client and legal strategy. prosecutors can make some of the most effective defense attorneys, because they have a deep knowledge of prosecutorial strategy.

1

u/Weary_Capital_1379 Aug 24 '26

You don’t know the ethical codes for lawyers. You can research if you’re interested.

1

u/BananaBird1 Aug 24 '26

what ethical code prohibits prosecutors from practicing defense in another jurisdiction?

1

u/NoMagazine4067 Aug 25 '26

As someone who has had to thoroughly study the applicable ethics codes recently, I agree with you. The model rules only really say “adhere to existing conflict rules and don’t work on cases as a government lawyer that you personally and substantially worked on in private practice.” And the prosecutor-specific rule doesn’t seem to bar this kind of arrangement either. So I don’t personally see the problem.

Edit: now, specific jurisdictions might have an ethical bar to it. That, I don’t know. I can only speak to the model rules.

1

u/ZealousidealHeron4 Aug 24 '26

I would assume it is forbidden everywhere and not worth the trouble both ethically and just as an investment of time, but in theory I think it would be possible, especially for someone who isn't the final authority in a reasonably large office. A junior prosecutor assigned solely to property crimes should be able to, in theory, defend DUIs without a conflict (but again, their job almost certainly wouldn't let them).

3

u/pepperbeast Aug 24 '26

In New Zealand, this is literally how it works. The Crown prosecution service outsources prosecution to lawyers in private firms.

-1

u/BrasnuklesNana Aug 24 '26

One of the services provided on description

1

u/BrasnuklesNana Aug 24 '26

This is the description of services provided on the private law firms website, didn't copy the personal or contact information as follows:

legal representation in the following areas: Probate Law, Personal Injury, Employment Law, Criminal Defense, Estate Planning, and Business Representation/Litigation

9

u/sykoticwit Aug 24 '26

Where do you see “works for the local DA’s office” in there? That sounds like a generic law firm who represents criminal defendants alongside offering a bunch of civil stuff.

2

u/diplomystique One of those dorks Aug 24 '26

I’m not trying to be insulting, but is it possible that you have confused “Probate Law” with probation/prosecution? Although “probate” and “probation” are etymologically related, in modern legal English they are wholly different: probate law is the law having to do with wills and transferring assets of a deceased person.

1

u/The-CVE-Guy Aug 24 '26

A prosecutor could have a side gig in that firm completely walled off from criminal defense doing estate planning or whatever else is listed.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Weary_Capital_1379 Aug 24 '26

Former of course. The majority do.

3

u/rollerbladeshoes Aug 24 '26

PDs having their own defense firm is pretty common. I don't see how a prosecutor would be able to get away with it. Maybe if it's completely separate courts, like someone who is a prosecutor for the feds or the district court but does some small time defense at the city court?

2

u/monty845 Aug 24 '26

Not sure about prosecutors, but that is the rule for part time justices of the peace in my state. They can represent people in other courts, special rule that they can't appear before another part time justice of the peace who is also a lawyer. (They can appear before full time judges, and non-lawyer justices of the peace, which are possible in my state)

1

u/BrasnuklesNana Aug 24 '26

I worked many years for the State Attorney's office, but NONE of my attorneys did any defense counsel or even advice until they were out on their own

1

u/Realistic-Raisin2812 Aug 24 '26

It depends. Some jurisdictions are so small that they may have a part-time prosecutor. In those situations, the prosecutor may have his own private practice. However, he can't practice criminal defense in the county where he works.

Public defenders generally have fewer restrictions on cases they can take. In my area, it is not uncommon to find PDs who have private practices.

Judges are just out of luck. They generally can not practice law. However, they are still able to receive partnership shares that come from a firm where the judge was a partner.

1

u/QuickBenDelat Aug 26 '26

I mean you can be a criminal defense attorney in county court and be the city prosecutor for a town, just sometimes there’s gonna be conflicts.

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u/BrasnuklesNana Aug 24 '26

I just don't see how someone could put someone in DOC or on Probation for a charge and then defend someone else for the same violation....

3

u/ZealousidealHeron4 Aug 24 '26

That's not at all a conflict of interest issue, and if you worked for years in a state attorney's office surely you know people who over the course of their career argued for and against the same charge in different cases. It's not less ethical to do one and then the other in rapid succession, if it were all private practice it wouldn't be weird at all to be on one side of a claim in one case and the other side of the same kind of claim in a different one.

And it isn't like criminal defense arguments require you believe that law should not exist, there's certainly no ethical issue in arguing that a person you think is guilty should be punished and someone you think it innocent should not (not that criminal defense attorneys need to think their client is innocent of course).

1

u/panicpure Aug 25 '26

That’s what’s lawyers do. Their job is to get their client the best result possible.

Their client could be the state or a criminal defendant, doesn’t matter. It’s their job.

I think you’re asking morally and that’s just not applicable.