Prison Professors With Michael Santos

In the first chapter, we emphasized the complexities of the legal system. With myriad codes, decisions, procedures, guidelines, and jurisdictions, hiring a lawyer makes a lot of sense if a person faces any type of legal challenge. When nonexperts respond to the legal system without counsel, they can lose their rights or expose themselves to further problems.  Even experienced attorneys hire lawyers when they anticipate that they may face problems from the legal system. Since the legal system is so broad, attorneys tend to specialize in one or more practice areas. An attorney that specializes in taxation, for example, would likely know a great deal about the tax code and how to create structures that minimize liability. Yet a tax lawyer may not know much about federal criminal procedure. Likewise, a lawyer that works exclusively on sentencing matters in federal criminal court may not be the best attorney to hire if that person wants to negotiate a severance agreement with an employer. With the law, as with any