While the cases may not be groundbreaking, the project provides important courtroom experience for the associates. The volunteer prosecutors evaluate as many as 250 cases a day each. “Since new attorneys are not often given opportunities to try jury cases, this arrangement allows them to perform the courtroom duties of a full-time prosecutor,” says Lloyd Segall. He is a senior assistant city attorney for the city of Houston who conducts the training program for the volunteer attorneys. “Sometimes [the firm lawyers] get to participate in as many as ten trials per day.”
Baker Botts third-year associate Keri Brown, whose stint ended in March, says she had first-hand exposure to the plea bargaining process and negotiating with defense lawyers. Learning to do cross-examinations, rebuttals, and closing arguments before a jury was also invaluable, Brown says.
Today four law firms—including Fulbright & Jaworski, Andrews Kurth, and Bracewell & Giuliani in addition to Baker Botts—are part of the program. Thanks to the firms’ help the city is able to save the cost of four full-time public prosecutors—more than $232,000 every year. “It is a quid pro quo that works,” says Segall.
—Priti Patnaik | July 1, 2009
