Much of what it is to practice in an area is to participate in the professional conversation about that area of law. Some of that is reading the publications where changes in the law or policy are discussed.
But part of it is knowing what conferences to go to, and why.
As I’ve written before, the two big conferences in the white-collar space are: (a) the ABA’s white-collar conference, which may be the easiest way to watch 1500 of the country’s best white-collar defense lawyers act like they’re in the first few weeks of college; and (b) the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ white-collar conference, which is as militantly pro-defense as a group of folks who are genetically not inclined to be militant can muster.
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To the extent that you, gentle reader, may care, I had thought this year I may skip both, largely for scheduling reasons.
But after looking at the agenda for the NACDL conference, I’m almost certainly in and — if you’re in the white-collar world, or trying to be in it — I think you should look hard at going as well.
The core problem with white-collar work is that what the government is doing changes over time. There are a lot of ways to respond, and learning what other lawyers are doing doesn’t happen without hearing from other lawyers. The NACDL conference is a great way to learn how others are facing the same new government tactics that I am.
Here are the top three sessions I’m excited about:
(1) “The Price Is Right: Defending a Big Case on a Small Budget”
If you aren’t in a large law firm defending an indemnified or seriously rich client, this is a recurring problem.
Just about any white-collar case involves a ton of documents — including a huge cache of emails. The biggest problem with documents is that they can be cumbersome to get your arms around. You need to know what’s in them to mount a defense.
That said, it takes a ton of time — which means it generally will cost a ton of money — to figure that out. There are work arounds (e.g., searching of various kinds, getting guidance from your client, seeing if you can either get or have the court order the government to identify documents (which brings with it another kind of peril)), but the volume of documents in most cases has to be dealt with. This is to say nothing of trial prep, hearing prep, motions work, and giving a client facing a criminal charge the time and attention he or she deserves.
My firm’s clients have funds, but almost no one has the ability to litigate a criminal case to the hilt. And that is exactly how a criminal case should be litigated. So I’m excited to see what other folks are doing to deal with this problem.
Plus Barry Coburn is one of the speakers, and Barry’s a smart fun guy to listen to.
(2) “How to Keep the Money: Strategies for Combating Freezes and Forfeitures.”
Here’s a familiar and infuriating pattern. The government searches a client’s home or office. At the same time, the government gets a seizure warrant for a bunch of the client’s money. There’s a civil forfeiture process, but it normally takes a back seat to a criminal investigation. So, while the criminal investigation grinds on — the general statute of limitations for a federal crime is five years — the client’s money just sits there, frozen.
That sucks.
The law doesn’t give you many options to fight the forfeiture without messing up the investigation. I hate that. My clients really hate it. It’s deeply unfair. I’m very keen to hear what others dealing with this problem are doing.
(3) Finally, “What Line? Reining in Prosecutorial Excesses: The Ethics and Strategy of Negotiations”
I’m a sucker for any session on prosecutorial ethics to start with, but I’m particularly excited about it in the context of negotiations with the government. The vast majority of criminal cases end in a plea. There are rules around pleas and plea negotiations, but there’s rarely meaningful judicial oversight. So, talking to other lawyers about how to actually do something about bad prosecutor behavior in a negotiation should be very useful. Plus Barry Pollack is speaking. And he’s a rock star.
Conferences can be hard to make time to go to. You’ve got clients, and cases, and the rest of your life. But this one looks really really good.
Matt Kaiser is a white-collar defense attorney at Kaiser, LeGrand & Dillon PLLC. He’s represented stockbrokers, tax preparers, doctors, drug dealers, and political appointees in federal investigations and indicted cases. Most of his clients come to the government’s attention because of some kind of misunderstanding. Matt writes the Federal Criminal Appeals Blog and has put together a webpage that’s meant to be the WebMD of federal criminal defense. His twitter handle is @mattkaiser. His email is [email protected] He’d love to hear from you if you’re inclined to say something nice.