It’s Shameful, Really Shameful for AG Herring to Run Ads That Disparage Lawyers!

I was appalled to hear on my television the Mark Herring ad criticizing GOP nominee John Adams for the defense of various corporate entities:

Now I have commented on this before.  And it is shameful for a fellow lawyer to play to anti-lawyer bigotry (and yes I called a Republican on this too) about the clients Adams represents.

Many of Adams’ corporate clients get charged with civil offenses by governments and many times the result is a settlement.  But unlike a guilty plea in a criminal case, it can be difficult to defend successfully a civil fine – the burden of proof is either preponderance of the evidence or maybe clear and convincing evidence (I call preponderance getting across the 50 yard line and clear and convincing scoring a field goal) not beyond a reasonable doubt.  And maybe there was a technical violation or violations by lower-level supervisors or managers.  The corporation is still civilly liable.

It is not fair for AG Herring to criticize Adams for defending corporate clients when he refused to defend HIS client:  the Commonwealth of Virginia on both marriage and redistricting.

A regular lawyer who abandoned his client like this would face bar charges.  A criminal attorney appointed on appeal and finds the appeal of the criminal trial frivolous has still to fine a brief and ask to withdraw.  Herring did neither.  He took his office and opposed the state constitution and laws of the Commonwealth.

I would appeal to a sensible liberal-leaning voter:  Do you want an Attorney General who will defend ALL the laws of the land – whether he or she agrees with them – or only defend ones he or she agrees with?  What if some ultra-conservative refuses to defend the abortion laws?

I am told John Adams is actually a descendant of the John Adams, our second President, and who defended the British soldiers accused of firing on colonists during the Boston Massacre:

Raised Baptist, Adams said his views are grounded in religious faith. He is the grandson of the Rev. Theodore F. Adams, who was on cover of Time in 1955 as president of the Baptist World Alliance. Another, more distant relative is his namesake: President John Adams, who as a young lawyer put his own feelings aside to represent British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre, ensuring they got a fair trial.

The future President did so because everyone is entitled to a defense.

Now some unsolicited advice to Adams:  Come out for a statewide public defender system.  Ensure better access to equal justice for all, regardless of poverty, accused of serious crimes.  And ask Mark Herring:  Do you agree and if so, why did you not support publicly this idea?

It’s shameful for one lawyer to run an ad like this.  I appeal to the Attorney General to withdraw this ad and apologize to all of us colleagues in the Commonwealth.