Rule No. 1

Listen, don't judge.

The late Sharon Levine listened to what her clients had to say without judging them.  Once you start to judge your client, you are no longer listening to what he or she is saying and you are doing them a disservice.

Our duty as criminal defense lawyers is to provide the best defense we can for our clients -- and you can't do that if you are caught up in making value judgments

Farewell to Sharon Levine

This morning, as we were eating breakfast with our girls, my wife asked me where Emory University was.  I said it was in Georgia and I asked her why.  She said she was reading the obituary of an attorney who was only 38 when she died after battling Hodgkins Disease.  I asked who and she read the name Sharon Renee Levine.

Sharon Levine, by her hard work and dogged determination, set into motion the events that led to the downfall of Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.  Ms. Levine represented one of the Ibarra brothers who were arrested for videotaping a police raid on a house in their neighborhood.  Believing that her client had been arrested without cause, Ms. Levine took the matter to trial - twice.  After the first trial ended in a hung jury, the state offered a $1 fine in exchange for a guilty plea.  Again Ms. Levine and Mr. Ibarra declined and set the matter for trial. 

The jury in the second trial found Mr. Ibarra not guilty.  That verdict set the stage for the civil rights suit filed by the Ibarra's against Harris County.  The judge in that matter ordered then-D.A. Chuck Rosenthal to turn over e-mails to the Ibarras.  After defying the court's order, Mr. Rosenthal was forced to resign from office earlier this year.

The toppling of the Rosenthal regime was the result of Ms. Levine's tireless devotion to her client in a fairly meaningless (except for Mr. Ibarra and his family) case.

Rest in peace, Sharon.