You Are Needed Now.

Oh boy, so it's Wednesday.

Remember when musicians used to get up on stage and play? And they were pretty good musicians? And we were all entertained by this?

Yep, those were the days.

So I see my friends Rick Freedman and Carlos Martinez are holding a press conference at 11:30 this morning:

On Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Eleventh Judicial Circuit Public Defender Carlos Martinez will hold a joint Press Conference with Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL) - Miami Chapter President Rick Freedman to announce FACDL-Miami's participation in a Pro Bono Initiative. The Press Conference will take place at the Public Defender's Office.

Beginning this week, more than 35 experienced criminal defense attorneys who are members of FACDL-Miami, will begin accepting felony cases from the Public Defender's office, as part of a volunteer (pro bono) attorney initiative to help Miami-Dade's poor. The initial response to the program has been fantastic and veteran lawyers with nearly 900 combined years dedicated to the legal profession in our community including Eugene Zenobi (39 years), Jack Blumenfeld (42 years), James McGuirk (42 years), Joel Robrish (40 years), William Aaron (37 years), Bruce Fleisher (36 years), Paul Morris (34 years), Bruce Alter (33 years), Richard Sharpstein (33 years), Alan Greenstein (32 years), Leonard Sands (31 years), Samuel Rabin (30 years), Jeffrey Weinkle (30 years), Richard Hersch (29 years), Eric Cohen (28 years), Milton Hirsch (27 years), Dennis Kainen (27 years), Michael Catalano (26 years), Lawrence Kerr (26 years), Rick Freedman (25 years), Faith Mesnekoff (25 years), Phil Reizenstein (23 years), Hector Flores (22 years), Tony Moss (22 years), Roberto Pardo (22 years), Marjorie Alexis (20 years), Robin Kaplan, Beatriz Llorente, Marshall Dore Louis, Mark Eiglarsh, Arthur Jones, Joaquin Padilla, Jackie Woodward, Keith Pierro, Larry McMillan, Elizabeth Perez, Michael Mirer, and others have offered their services to this wonderful program.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees all accused persons the assistance of counsel for their defenses. If that protection is to have any real meaning, then the Florida Legislature must provide the necessary funds in order for Public Defenders throughout the State to effectively represent their clients.

The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers - Miami Chapter is aware of the critical situation that exists at the Public Defender's Office in the form of budget cuts and increasing caseloads. The result of this is that the attorneys in that office are handling too many cases and cannot be constitutionally effective in their representation of their current clients.

The legislature's answer to this problem is to create more crimes with new statutes, increase penalties for existing crimes and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build more prisons. All of this results in more defendants being arrested, more cases being filed and an exponentially higher chance that an innocent man's freedom will be taken from him. In order for every accused American to have competent and effective counsel, the second branch of our government must stop ignoring, at budget time, the third branch.

This is a good thing. It's an example of how you can find meaning for yourself as a lawyer, of how you can contribute to being part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. Either that or you can go work for John Ashcroft.

It's no secret we are big fans of Carlos Martinez at this crappy blog, and for good reason: he's reasonably competent at what he does, and his heart is in the right place.

What more do you want from a public servant, particularly in this town?

As a civil litigator I was a strong proponent of his initiative to bring in bored, inexperienced, to-be-fired BigLaw associates to help out with the public defender's caseload. I know Rumpy and his merry crew of Shumified defense lawyers all derided this idea, but I think it's great.

Part of the criticism stems from a perception that criminal law is an elusive beast that can only be mastered by those in the know and who are conversant in the mystic arts.

It's certainly true that to be highly skilled at this speciality takes much talent and years of dedication.

But how about being mediocre or even slightly below average at it? You know what I am talking about.

Seriously, how hard is that?

Another part of the criticism stems from the perception that BigLaw attorneys are lousy trial lawyers and wouldn't know how to find a courtroom, let alone succeed in one.

Ok, fair point.

But the fact is these lawyers got their jobs because they are smart, capable, and quick learners. They succeeded at law school and are for the most part capable of schlepping their way through a motion to suppress hearing, assuming they get some training first.

Why not give them the training, plebes?

Things Are Tough All Over

Ok, so now I have to give the shoeshine guy at the courthouse a ten spot to get my shoes shined, the price of the remaining bottles of Malaccan gin is on the rise, and it's impossible for two to get out of La Loggia at lunchtime for under 50 bucks.

I can accept all that.

But now they've gone too far -- even the price of crack is going up:

A rage over a recent price hike in crack cocaine is what landed a man in jail on Tuesday night after he allegedly smashed a convenience store display in protest.

Gus Young Jr. told police he broke a Plexiglas counter partition and a DVD case at Dixon's Food Mart because the price of crack had gone up two-fold, according to a police report. He said he had $10 to spend on the drugs but was told the amount had hiked up to $20.

Decisions, decisions. What to do? I found this article about how to deal with economic anxiety pretty interesting. Basically, the author argues that you feel better by helping others:

For many people, however, the problem with subprime mortgages and the financial crisis won't push them into true poverty, but it will make them feel much poorer - and as a consequence, make them feel anxious and powerless.

If you're one of those people, there is a way that you can both help people living in poverty and help yourself feel happier: Give to other people.

One of the most important principles I've learned from my happiness research is that although we assume that we act because of the way we feel, often we feel because of the way we act.

Therefore, if you don't like the way you're feeling, take action in the opposite direction -- it sounds simplistic, but it's almost uncannily effective. If you're feeling poor, give something away. If you're feeling powerless, take control of something. Also, one of the quickest ways to make yourself feel better is to be GRATEFUL. It's hard to feel grateful when you're thinking about your 401K's drop in value; thinking about giving to people who are worse off will remind you of how much you have to be grateful for.

When we think of doing something to help people living in poverty, it's easy to think about donating money -- and to say, "Look, I'd like to help, but I can't afford to give right now." Or to think about donating time - and to say, "I'd love to volunteer, but I've got to focus on my job hunt."

When you tell yourself that you can't afford to give, you increase your feelings of panic and danger. If you find ways to give, you will show yourself that you have enough and more, that you can be generous, that you recognize that others have needs more pressing than your own - and that will make you feel better. This act doesn't have to be huge. I have a friend who puts all her loose change in a jar at the end of the day, and when the jar is full, she gives it to her church. It's not much money, but it's constant. She's done it for years, and by now, she's probably given away a fair bit.

Maybe you can't give money or time. But that doesn't mean you can't give.

Of course as lawyers we have many ways to give back, and we should and must. That's one of the obligations of our profession, and it extends beyond the $350 check you cut every year. It's pro bono, it's service hours, it's giving back to those less fortunate (and we know you machers all are very fortunate, and probably could even afford the crack cocaine price hike).

So find that angry WPB crack user, and give him the ten spot he so desperately needs to cover that unconscionable price jump -- you'll not only make his evening (assuming he remembers any of it), but you'll feel a lot better about yourself in the process.

Or I guess you could volunteer to take a pro bono case. Either way it's the thought that counts.