How unappealing

Law.com reports on a place where some of the traditional criminal defense lawyer personality flaws - unbridled ego, misplaced idealism, or both - can get you and your client in deep trouble fast: the U.S. Supreme Court.

Will Defense Lawyers Accept Help on High Court Criminal Cases?

The article cites unreal Seattle appellate hero Jeffrey Fisher, who won both Blakely and Crawford.

Then there's Michael Studebaker of Ogden, Utah, four years out of law school, one prior appellate argument in state court...

Charley at The State of the Beehive carried some of the press accounts of how well his Supreme Court advocacy went.

Hey, perhaps they'd consider issuing an unpublished opinion.

Update: MyShingle sticks up for the little guy (the lawyer, not necessarily the client). She's guessing that the outcome would be the same whether it was a Michael Studebaker or a Jeffrey Fisher handling the appeal.

I'm guessing she's probably wrong, but then, what better venue than the U.S. Supreme Court, and what better time than an appeal, the outcome of which all your criminal defense clients and colleagues nationwide will have to swallow, to rehash the fights that really matter, such as small firms vs. BigLaw, or for that matter, low-level private or p.d. practitioners vs. NACDL big dogs?

Ask Jeffrey Fisher whether "(i)t has nothing to do with protecting criminal defendants." If you ask me, I'd say criminal defendants all over were pretty well protected by Fisher's expertise. Link via Crime and Federalism.