Our North Star, Justice is why we exist and what we fight for. A criminal justice system that functions as the Constitution and Congress intend is essential to the rule of law. We strive to ensure that every person whose legal defense is entrusted to us benefits equally from that system by holding other criminal justice stakeholders—prosecutors, judges, pretrial services and probation officers, clerks of court, U.S. Marshals, Department of Corrections, Florida Attorney General—accountable for ensuring the preservation of constitutional and statutory rights. We help the people with the least resources stand tall before the power the U.S. government brings to bear on them. We paint a detailed and vivid picture of the law and the people we represent so judges can give life and meaning to constitutional and statutory rights. We fight for more than our client; we fight for a system that protects the dignity, autonomy, and inherent worth of every person within that system.

    We represent people, not business entities, commodities, or burdens. We fight for a criminal justice system that protects human dignity, autonomy, and inherent worth, so we must engage with our clients in a way that emphasizes those fundamentals. We do not stand alone in this but work as a team; we must respect our teammates, see their value, and encourage and support them so we increase our ability to succeed in our mission. Other criminal justice stakeholders—prosecutors, judges, pretrial services and probation officers, clerks of court, U.S. Marshals, Department of Corrections, Florida Attorney General—are not our enemies; by respecting their important roles in ensuring a healthy criminal justice system and by building respectful relationships with them, we increase mission success.

    Criminal defense is a calling that focuses on the protection of individual rights. We must be true to that system and its purpose while understanding the larger purpose we serve in protecting the rule of law. We must be honest and forthright with our clients, judges, prosecutors, and all other criminal justice stakeholders in every interaction in every case. Trial tactics are different than trickery; underhandedness does not result in justice. When we see a lack of integrity, we take the high road and confront it. We demonstrate unwavering adherence to our guiding principles.

    We continuously strive to be our best. This means we invest in ourselves, our teammates, and our organization. We engage in continuous learning through education and training. We collaborate with each other to build knowledge. We actively seek opportunities, including leveraging external resources, to innovate and improve our organization. We engage with our legal and local communities to build relationships that increase their understanding of what we do and why. We develop efficiencies that minimize constraints on our ability to accomplish our mission. We never stand still; we never accept that we cannot be and do better.