For the Defense - Vol. 9, Issue 4 - 47

think strategically about how to reach and communicate with client
prospects and referral sources, attract new work and distinguish
themselves from their competitors.
Discuss this waiver with your client with the same
seriousness you would discuss the waiver of any
constitutional right.30
Understanding the Legal Buyer's Journey
* Request discovery early and in writing. That way,
if the Commonwealth fails to provide requested
discovery, any required continuance will be on
the prosecution. If you have to follow-up with the
Commonwealth about discovery they have failed to
hand over, be sure to memorialize such requests in
a writing such as an email.
* If a continuance is required due to the
Commonwealth's failure of diligence, be sure to
put that on the record at the time the continuance
is requested. Even if the judge does not rule in
your favor, you have at least preserved the issue for
appeal.
* All motions to dismiss pursuant to Rule 600 must be
made in writing.31
365-day period has elapsed. If the trial judge rules
against you and subsequently the Commonwealth
causes another substantial period of delay, file
a new Rule 600 motion based on this additional
time and litigate it prior to any trial to preserve an
objection to the additional time period.
1. I Know You: Before they contact you-even if they
were referred to you, as most are-prospective clients
want to learn about you and your firm, your work and
experience, and your reputation. For you, this stage
is about visibility-making sure potential clients and
referral sources know who you are, what you do, and
how you do it.
* At the Rule 600 hearing, after the defense has
made a prima facie showing that the defendant
has not been brought to trial within 365 days,
the Commonwealth bears the burden of proving
that they have nonetheless acted with diligence.
This means that after the defense has made such
a prima facie showing, it is the Commonwealth
who should be required to put on its evidence
and the defense should only argue after the
Commonwealth has done so. Essentially, a Rule 600
hearing should proceed in form almost identically
to a suppression hearing. If the judge asks you
to argue prior to the Commonwealth's evidence,
make it clear that you could not possibly argue
on behalf of your client until you know what the
Commonwealth's evidence of diligence is.
2. I Trust You: Once a client knows who you are, the next
step in the buyer's journey is building trust. In criminal
and white-collar defense, trust is truly paramount, and
clients need to know not only that you have skill and
expertise to protect them and their rights, but that
you'll handle their case with the utmost discretion and
empathy. For you, this stage is about demonstrating
not only your legal skill, but also your approach to
working with clients.
3. I Want to Work With You: The final step in the legal
buyer's journey is converting trust into engagement.
By reinforcing that you understand their situation and
offering a clear path forward, you can move prospects
from considering their options for counsel to choosing
you.
The buyer's journey doesn't stop when the client hires you. Once
they become a client, your primary goal, of course, is to provide
excellent representation. But client service is more than your skill and
expertise. It also requires nurturing the relationship in a way that
converts satisfied clients into your best advocates for you and your
practice with others.
Reframing Sales as Collaborative Client Service
* If the Commonwealth appears at the Rule 600
hearing and does not present any evidence that
it acted with diligence-for instance, they did not
bring in the officer to testify to the attempts made
to find and apprehend the defendant-argue that
they have not met their burden because the burden
of proof includes the burden of production and
arguments of counsel are not evidence.
For many lawyers-and perhaps criminal defense lawyers in
particular-embracing a sales mindset can feel like philosophical shift.
The term sales tends to conjure images of the hard sell, pressure-filled
pitches and one-sided conversations. But in legal services, sales can
and should be seen as a collaborative process of communicating with
clients, prospects, and referral sources across the buyer's journey. In
this way, sales is about understanding and addressing the challenges
and concerns of clients and gaining their trust and confidence that
you can and will handle their case with skill, empathy and discretion.
In today's digitally driven marketplace, much of this relationshipbuilding
engagement may be done even before the first personal
contact with potential clients. Focusing your marketing and business
development on building trust by providing valuable, informational
Regardless of whether the client is a large entity or an individual,
and whether the lawyer is from Big Law or is a solo practitioner, legal
buying decisions are, at their most basic, based on personal trust
relationships. Before they hire a lawyer, clients must feel confident
that the lawyer (and by extension their firm) can and should be
trusted to handle what are often the client's most critical needs
and challenges. This is even more true in criminal and white-collar
defense, where the stakes frequently involve personal rights and
freedoms.
For this reason, the legal buyer's journey moves through phases of
trust building:
Using the strategy above, people both in and
outside my office have had tremendous success with
Rule 600 motions. Oftentimes, just making it plain
to the Commonwealth that you intend to seriously
litigate this issue can get you results. It is only one
weapon in your arsenal, but because a win means
discharge, it is a potent weapon that should never
be overlooked.
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NOTES:
1
Commonwealth v. Mills, 162 A.3d 323 (Pa. 2017).
2 U.S. ConSt. Amend. VI; PA. CONST. art. 1, § 9.
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3 Commonwealth v. DeBlase, 665 A.2d 427, 431 (Pa. 1995).
4
Build trust with clients, prospects and referral sources
through thought leadership: Highlight your legal
acumen, experience and approach to defending clients
through articles, speaking at conferences or offering
insights to the media on high-profile cases.
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File your client's motion after the
Pa.R.Crim.P. Rule 600(2)(a); see also Commonwealth
v. Kearse, 890 A.2d 388, 395 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2005) (no
" prejudice " need be shown to obtain Rule 600 dismissal).
While Rule 600 has a more definitive time period, the sole
focus of Rule 600 is on the action of the Commonwealth.
Thus, a constitutional argument should be forwarded
when a delay prejudices a defendant and that delay was
primarily caused by the courts.
6 Pa.R.Crim.P. Rule 600(D)(1).
5
* Engage with your network: Referrals, whether from
previous clients, colleagues or other lawyers, are the
primary source of business in criminal defense. Stay
connected and engaged with your network. The more
you nurture your relationships, the more your network
will remember you when opportunities arise.
* Emphasize your approach: The decision to hire a
defense attorney is both extremely personal and
frequently urgent. Taking the time to show clients
not only that you have the legal skills and experience,
but also that you understand their personal concerns,
whether they're worried about loss of freedom,
reputational harm or professional consequences,
Developing a Sales Mindset
Developing a sales mindset is not about abandoning either the
ethical principles that guide the legal profession or your focus on
protecting your clients' rights. In fact, quite the opposite. It's about
understanding the trust and confidence your clients need to have
in order to feel comfortable hiring you, and about taking proactive
steps to communicate, provide valuable information and nurture
relationships with clients, prospects and referral sources.
About the Author
Click here to view and/or print the
full notes section for this article.
PANTONE
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About the Author
Katherine Ernst is an
appellate attorney with the
Montgomery County Public
Defender's Office. She
handles appeals from all
units, juvenile to homicide,
and she also formulates
legal strategy for pre-trial
Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530 (1972) (articulating the
constitutional test); Commonwealth v. Preston, 904 A.2d
1, 10 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2006) (the Barker test is an entirely
separate analysis from Rule 600 and therefore needs to be
raised separately).
7406C
content to your audience of clients, prospects and referral sources,
transforms sales into collaborative client service.
In this way, embracing a sales mindset is not about changing
the way you practice law-it's about being deliberate in how you
position yourself (and your firm) in the marketplace by being client
focused-and demonstrating client-focused expertise.
Here are some ways to integrate pro-active business
development-in other words, sales-into your practice:
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and trial units. Katherine graduated Magna Cum
Laude from Loyola Law School, New Orleans
in 2007 and was on law review. She practiced
at Kaufman, Coren & Ress in Philadelphia out
of law school, and thereafter did work in the
intersection of horseracing law and §1983 for a
number of years before following her passion
for indigent criminal defense.
Meg Pritchard is a lawyer
and legal journalist turned
content marketing strategist,
helping leading law firms
leverage the power of
branded content and thought
leadership. She is a marketing
professional who understands
the content marketing
challenges facing firms in today's competitive-and
cluttered-marketplace. In 2011, she founded Create
Communications to serve as an outsourced resource for
law firms that wanted to leverage the power of
top-notch branded content and thought leadership in
their marketing and business development.
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