A look at the life of a criminal defence lawyer
Since he was called to the bar in 2005, Sean Robichaud has made a name for himself as a prominent criminal defence lawyer in Toronto. In addition to being lead counsel at Robichaud’s, a firm focused on criminal defence matters, Mr. Robichaud hosts the popular Of Counsel podcast, where he interviews prominent lawyers from across the province.
Mr. Robichaud sat down with a writer from the Criminal Law Students’ Association to offer his perspective on criminal defence and how interested students can approach this field as a career.
The interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
What is the difference between practising criminal defence as opposed to working at one of the big firms?
SR: What I think I’d say to anyone getting into criminal law in the first instance is, your personal life and professional life are strongly intertwined. And that is only alleviated if and when you have the discipline to start delegating your responsibilities to others in the firm, i.e. if you hire more people. But if you are a solo practitioner, you’re always on call. You always need to be available for your clients. You need to deal with emergencies. You’re basically an emergency room doctor at all times. And you go to the hospital every day of the week.
And that is a difficult thing. People should be conscious of it going into it, because if you’re not, you’re going to get overwhelmed, and it’s going to contribute to things like mental health issues. Having the ability to manage that, and the ability to say no during certain times, or delegating, is crucial to maintaining the law practice. But that of course conflicts with the business side of things, because from the business point of view, the only way you will get those clients is by being available to answer their questions. Clients don’t care about how you feel that day. Clients don’t care whether you are going through a personal crisis.
How do you approach clients when you have difficult information for them?
SR: You should never try and make things seem better than they are. You should always be direct with your clients, because if you’re just telling your client what they want to hear, then that’s what they want you to deliver as a lawyer. So if your client can’t handle the truth […], then that’s not a client that you want. They can make their own choices on how they want to deal with that truth based on your advice, you can never take that away from them. But if they simply can’t hear the truth, or they disagree with you, even though they’re wrong in law, then you should just tell the client that they should perhaps seek other counsel.
[…]
Part of the importance of the solicitor-client relationship is trust. It’s fundamental. Without trust, which is derived from that authenticity and truthfulness, there is nothing there. And that distrust is going to hurt you throughout the relationship and beyond.
What advice do you have for law students interested in pursuing a career in criminal defence?
SR: There’s a couple ways [to pursue that path], and both can be done at the same time. One is to commit. One of the first things I look at in the resumes that come to our firm is at what point did this person commit to criminal law. If they didn’t take evidence for example, or criminal procedure, then I’m not interested — if you didn’t decide three years ago about where you want your life to be, then I’m not going to be part of your journey. I’m more than happy to join you on our criminal law journey together — but you need to have made that choice a long time ago. I’m not your parents. So commit.
[For] most of the people that I know who have gone into the criminal bar, it’s been a rather organic way for them to reach that point.
For those that aren’t within the standard hiring procedure, almost all hires that come from criminal law are reactive to emergencies that unfold within the practice. For example, as of now we are fine with our staff. But if after this interview I get two calls on a homicide, which is possible, we are hiring next week.
Do you prefer jury or judge-alone trials?
SR: My preference is always jury trials. Because I feel juries get it right far more often than judges do. […] It’s a very rare day that I would prefer a judge trial over a jury trial. Because in my view, the collective wisdom of twelve people is far better than the opinion of one person, [who] has often been made rigid over years of practice, [and who] is hard to persuade.
I know with a great degree of predictability how my case is going to go when I find out who my judge is. […] With a jury, the only thing I know is that the person is going to get a fair shot at reasonable doubt, and that’s why I prefer them. Juries are very thoughtful, they’re very perceptive, and they bring perspective that judges don’t have because they have such wide [experience].
Is there anything you wish you had known during law school?
SR: Decide sooner than later what you want to do. Specialize and then just commit to it […] because that’s going to set you apart, and the more you learn about criminal law, the easier it’s going to be to advance within it. Taking an extra course or two may seem like a little deal right now, but it’s going to have an exponentially beneficial effect once you get into practice because you’re not going to have time to do that later on. The other thing is just try to get to know people within the legal community that you want to practice in. […] Those people are going to open up a lot of opportunities for you and give you guidance when the time comes.
The pitfall is make sure you learn when to say no — you don’t have to say yes to everything. Say yes to the things you should and focus on them. You are far better off trying to focus on doing good quality work on them than trying to take on everything and doing poorly at all of them.
Are there any books you would recommend to an aspiring criminal defence lawyer?
SR: If you were going to put down one book, I would say read The Fall by Albert Camus.
This series by the Criminal Law Students’ Association introduces the law student body to the wild, wild world of criminal law and criminal justice. Articles will be published in print in Ultra Vires as well as on the CLSA’s website, uoftlawclsa.weebly.com/blog. To pitch an article to the CLSA blog series, please contact the CLSA Blog Editor, Teodora Pasca, at [email protected].
Read last month’s CLSA column here.
