Brian Foley spent years as a Harris County prosecutor, rising to Felony Chief. Then he switched sides. In this video he answers the question he is asked most often since.
Protecting people
The person charged with a crime is one individual — frightened, usually inexperienced with the system, often innocent, sometimes not — facing the State of Texas, with its police, its laboratories, its investigators, and its prosecutors. The defense lawyer is the only thing between that person and the full weight of that machine. Someone has to stand there. It should be someone who knows how the machine works.
Protecting rights
The Fourth Amendment does not enforce itself. Neither does the right to remain silent, the right to confront witnesses, or the presumption of innocence. Those rights exist only because, in individual cases, defense lawyers insisted on them — filed the motion, made the objection, took the case to trial. Every person who has never been arrested benefits from a defense lawyer who held the State to the rules in someone else's case.
Protecting a future
Most clients are not going to prison. They are going to keep living — working, raising children, applying for jobs and apartments and licenses. A conviction follows them into every one of those. A dismissal, a reduction, an expunction, or a sealed record means the mistake stays in the past. That is the outcome defense lawyers fight for most often, and it is the one that matters most to the person in the chair.
Brian Foley and Luis Baez prosecuted because they believed in the system. They defend for the same reason. Call or text (713) 703-1718 for a free consultation.