Nicola Williams

"She remembered what her pupil-master had told her, fresh out of law school, in that year between passing the Bar exams and being "let loose on the public", as he put it: First rule of criminal defence: if your lay client tells you he's pleading not guilty, don't go behind that. If all the evidence indicates that he did it, or if his defence sounds like a pack of lies, then you can advise him as his counsel what you think his chances are. But it doesn't matter if you think he's guilty. You're not judge and jury. Unless he actually tells you he's guilty, you'll never know for sure, and not even then.