Standby or Advisory Counsel

• Author: Elizabeth Owen and Erica Weissmann
• Pages: 303-314

303

Chapter

Chapter

Elizabeth Owen and Erica Weissman

If the court calls and appoints you as standby or advisory or counsel, you

may have mixed emotions. On the one hand, you should feel honored that

the judge believes that you have good relations with your clients, in addition

to the fact that with this particular appointment, you will understand the inter-

play between the client’s competency, the client’s Sixth Amendment right

to counsel, and your ethical responsibilities. On the other hand, you may

dread the appointment, particularly if you know that your new client has had

a string of prior attorneys.

This chapter by Dr. Elizabeth Owen and Dr. Erica Weissman will help

you embrace the appointment, navigate challenges, and perhaps even leave

your client with the belief that he or she did in fact receive his or her day in

court.

• • •

Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to counsel—and a

Constitutional right to dispense with counsel and represent themselves.

As the United States Supreme Court explained in Faretta v. California

(1975): “[U]nless the defendant agrees to representation by counsel, the

defense presented is not the defense guaranteed by the Constitution, for,

in a very real sense, it is not his defense. . . . The defendant, not his lawyer

or the State, will bear the personal consequences of a conviction. It is the

Standby or Advisory

Counsel

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