EXPLORING WHAT IT

TAKES TO BE A DEFENSE
ATTORNEY
CADEN MUNSON

INDEPENDENT STUDY MENTORSHIP – FALL 2018

MRS. CLICK
 DISCLAIMER

Not all the information in this

presentation comes directly from
mentorship experience, some of
the information comes from
outside research.
 MENTOR INTRODUCTION

• Mentor – Mekisha Jane Walker

• Mentorship location – Mentors home office and
the court room
• Mentors career – Criminal defense attorney
• Education – University of Houston - Bachelor of
Science,
• Legal Studies - American Jurisprudence,
December 1998
 WHAT IS ISM

• ISM stands for Independent Study Mentorship. Each student has to select a
mentor to shadow for at least one semester. The students are required to spend
at least 3 hours a week with their mentors and keep an activity log. At the end of
each semester the student is required to give a presentation about what they
learned to three professionals in positions related to their mentorship. The goal
of ISM is to help high school students get a better idea of what their future
career could be or help them decide what they want to do as a career.
 For my project topic I decided to study what goes
PROJECT into being a criminal defense attorney from day to
day. I picked this as my topic because after
TOPIC spending the day with my mentor at court, I
realized how different her job was than what I had
seen on the TV and figured that if I had this
misconception about what defense attorneys
actually do, a majority of people probably did as
well. By researching this topic I hope to shine a
light on the reality of a profession that is often,
misunderstood or overexaggerated by popular
culture.
 KEY POINT 1 – WORK
ENVIRONMENT
• When watching TV or reading books people are
led to believe that defense attorneys and
prosecutors are sworn enemies and every time a
defense attorney enters the court its for a high
stakes trial. However, what I’ve found through
observing my mentor and research is that it’s quite
the opposite. In the court room people of all
careers work together, the defense and
prosecution get along for the most part and people
of other careers like clerks, bailiffs, and judges all
function in the same space. The courtroom is like a
living organism with each part playing a vital role.
 KEY POINT 2 – TYPES OF
CASES
• Going through my mentors cases I noticed a
trend in the types of cases she worked. She had a
large portion of drug offenses, DWIs, assaults,
and thefts. My mentor predominantly works
misdemeanors

See sources slide

While researching the most common types of

misdemeanors in Texas I notice that the evidence backed
up my observation. In both 2015 and 2016 the most as
well as the following years, the most common offenses
remained the same. The high rates of one type of offense
leads to attorneys specializing and focusing on a
particular crime.

See sources slide

 PRODUCT SLIDE

• My final product is a statistical

analysis of the 5 most common
misdemeanors as mentioned in
the previous slide. All of the data
comes from the state government
and can be found on txcourts.gov.
I tracked the misdemeanors over
a 10 year period from 2007 to
2017 and made correlating
charts/graphs.
 KEY POINT 3 – ROLE OF THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY
• The role of the defense attorney is well known, yet
people still have ideas about what they do that are
incorrect. For example, a lot of what they do is piecing
together evidence, resetting cases, filing paperwork,
and working with multiple clients at once. Popular
culture leads people to believe that defense attorneys
represent one client at a time and spend a majority of
their time with the client. Furthermore, through my
observations I noticed that most of the case work is done
without the client and the two only meet to discus pivotal
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS809US809&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=99oCXMqcH
decisions in the case like going to trial or pleading out. 5K2jwTazpvgCw&q=Oj+simpson+trial&oq=Oj+simpson+trial&gs_l=img.3..0l10.116211.121000..1
21857...0.0..0.740.4000.2j2j0j2j1j3j1......1....1..gws-wiz-
img.......35i39j0i67.FT3RXhNsB2Q&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=4ns3oGheqjYWsM:
 KEY POINT 4 – CLIENT
INTERACTION
• Another common misconception about defense
attorneys is how they interact with clients. While
face to face conversations do occur, its mostly in
the court, either in the holding tanks or out in the
hallway for some privacy. Most of the work can be
done without interacting with the defendant. All the
evidence is available online and electronic https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS809US809&biw=1366&bi
h=577&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=uPICXMOsNavWjwSEvbbgAQ&q=police+interrog
communication like email and phone calls have ation+with+laywer&oq=police+interrogation+with+laywer&gs_l=img.3...8702
7.98060..98182...3.0..0.114.1917.33j2......1....1..gws-wiz-

made client interactions mostly digital. One of the img.......0j35i39j0i67j0i8i30j0i5i30j0i24.dstF1oITpjQ&safe=active&ssui=on#im

grc=_v9Q3SJ3zCFBdM:

most important aspects of this relationships is

attorney client privilege, which promotes the
flowing of information between the two parties.
 KEY POINT 5 – INTERACTION WITH THE
PROSECUTION
• Most people believe that the defense and
prosecution are sworn enemies, but this is
entirely false. In fact, most of the time they
work in close proximity to each other, in my
experience, at the same table. In my
research I have found that both the defense
and the prosecution understand that they
are just working and don’t hold any
https://www.google.com/search?q=court+room&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS809US809&so
urce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwingN770ILfAhVs1oMKHV27DZMQ_AUI
personal grudge against one each other for
things that happen during a trial.
DigB&biw=1366&bih=626&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=vZsi6sTIbtQ0bM:
 • For my current event I chose to took into
CURRENT Bill Cosbey’s ever changing legal defense
EVENT team. He has had to change his entire team
three time for different reasons. The first
group of defense attorneys is suing
Cosbey for $282,000, claiming that they
never received monetary compensation
from the convicted sex offender. This case
highlights one of the potential drawbacks
to being a defense attorney. Clients can be
difficult to deal with and since attorneys
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+cosby&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS809US809&tb
cant quit the case without a valid reason, a
m=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMnODpwf_eAhVo44MKHToRB_YQ_A
UICygC&biw=1366&bih=577&dpr=1&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=rET8nYD7m7V
KlM:
high level of friction can occur between
the two parties.
 CONCLUSION

• Overall this semester of ISM has taught me a lot. My dad was a police officer for twenty-five years so
I learned how police officers do their jobs in arresting criminals and sending them to jail. Being
able to learn what a defense attorney does to try and prevent people from serving jail sentences is
opposite to the environment I have grown up in, and it really opened my eyes. I have developed a
greater sense of understanding in what goes on in a courtroom and disproved many of my
preconceived misunderstanding for the better.
• Thank you Mekisha for being a wonderful mentor and taking time teach me
about your career
• Thank you Ms. Schultz and Ms. Hart for taking some time out of your day to
grade my presentation
• Thank you Mrs. Click for always helping with assignments and being
flexible.
• Link to website - https://cadenmunsonismportfolio.weebly.com
 WORK CITED

• United States, Texas, Court Administration, and David Slayton. “Annual Statistical Report for the Texas

Judiciary.” Annual Statistical Report for the Texas Judiciary, Office of Court Administration, 2016, pp. 1–153.

• United States, Texas, Court Administration, and David Slayton. “Annual Statistical Report for the Texas

Judiciary.” Annual Statistical Report for the Texas Judiciary, Office of Court Administration, 2017, pp. 1–168.
• United States, Texas, Court Administration, and David Slayton. “Annual Statistical Report for the Texas Judiciary.” Annual

Statistical Report for the Texas Judiciary, Office of Court Administration, 2015, pp. 1–139.
• Walkowiak, Vincent S. “AN OVERVIEW OF THE ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE AND THE POTENTIAL LOSS OF THE PRIVILEGE THROUGH WAIVER.” State Bar

of Texas, 22 July 2004, pp. 1–11.

• White, Jackson. “Can an Attorney Fire Their Client | Why Lawyers Withdraw from a Case.” JacksonWhite Intellectual Property

Law, 2018, www.jacksonwhitelaw.com/criminal-defense-law/attorney-withdraw-case/.