Gary Eugene Brotherton

If I were to have five words with which to describe myself, I guess they'd be passionate, believer, defender, dogged and Thoreau:  

1. Passionate:  Nothing in life means a damn if it does not stir some degree of passion within you.  Some may say that my passion runs too deep - usually, however, they are seeing my passion from the "other" side.  I am as comfortable being indignant in front of a panel of judges as I am in front of my clients.  Were that not the case, I would need to find a new line of work.  It is meaningless to express passion and outrage to your client but then meekly go along with the flow in court.  I am never discourteous, but neither am I ever remiss to point out the unfairnesses, injustices or inequalities - whether discussing a routine bond reduction motion or arguing a pivotal motion to suppress.
2. Believer:  I believe in Santa Claus just as I believe in Prosecutorial Misconduct - both come bearing gifts!  The latter motivates me beyond most anything else to stay in the trenches.  Especially in the death penalty community it is said that if you haven't found prosecutorial misconduct in a case, you haven't looked for it. You have to believe in order to open your eyes and look - my eyes are open.
3. Defender:  I began my career as an assistant public defender, but I became a "defender" long before.  Defending those with quiet voices or slight grips gives my career a meaning that nothing else could.  Criminal defense gives meaning to the principles of our Founders like few other areas of law.  Few other areas give you the privilege being all that stands - everyday - between the power of the government and the vulverability of the defenseless.  Any time I am asked that cliche question - how can you represent someone you KNOW is guilty, I reply, "Well, I wasn't there, so, I don't 'KNOW', but the better question is why does the government not like me keeping its power in check?"
4. Dogged:  Just as I love the gentle loyalty of a labrador retriever, so too, do I love the fierce tenacity of a terrier.  Combining both tends to serve me well.  Until someone tells me that I'm beating a dead horse, I'm not likely to stop looking.  Recently, we uncovered compelling new evidence in a 20 year old death penalty case - original documents generated 20 years earlier by unwitting witnesses and maintained by them for completely irrational reasons.  Success!
5. Thoreau:  Henry David Thoreau is one of my favorite modern thinkers.  Were I to spend every moment passionately believing only in the dogged defense that needs mounted, I would lose all effectiveness.  We all need to take this advice from Thoreau:   “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”