DP P.D. turns teacher

A good man leaves the ranks to teach Latin:

Robert Lominack became a defense attorney to help people. But starting this year, he’s trying to help before they end up in a lawyer’s office.

The 32-year-old lawyer traded the courtroom for the classroom — along with about a 50 percent pay cut. He teaches Latin..., far away from his work on high-profile death-penalty cases in South Carolina.

“I just got burned out,” Lominack said. "It’s a tough job. It’s one that if you can’t put 100 percent into it, you’ll do more harm than good."

The towering workload wasn’t the problem."It was emotionally draining because your clients were in such a terrible place in their lives," he said.

"I know that feeling, and when you're trying to defend somebody from the death penalty who has committed a horrible crime, part of that job requires a painstaking re-creation of that person's life,"” (David) Bruck said. "And you often see a point when things could have turned out differently if someone had cared about them a little more."

"That weighed heavily on Robert,"” Bruck said. "“I think he thought that person could be him."

Indeed, Lominack said his clients' childhoods made a huge impact on him.

Lominack found that one of his clients was homeless as a child. Teachers learned of the situation and provided him with clothing, bedding and food.

"“They were nice to him when nobody else was,"” Lominack said.

The same could be said of this good servant. Ave atque vale.

Link via Capital Defense Weekly.