At a social function the other day, I was speaking to a very pleasant young lady. When the topic of career arose, I remarked that I practiced criminal law. I should have anticipated the next question.

"How can you represent someone who you really think is guilty?"

This must be the most often asked question of a criminal lawyer, and not without reason.

Television and Hollywood movies tend to portray criminal lawyers, also known as defense counsel, as dishonest, calculating renegades, who unfairly beat the justice system and have dangerous people released into society.

Yet, in Canada recently, several high profile cases – the most dramatic being that of Guy Paul Morin, the subject of an inquiry which is just concluding – indicate that, in spite of the actions of police, prosecutors and expert witnesses, only the determined efforts of criminal lawyers have vindicated the innocent.

Criminal lawyers have the duty to represent each client to the best of their abilities, and to fearlessly advance all appropriate defenses.

This is sometimes not very easy to do, given that the client may be charged with a serious and disturbing crime.

As a criminal lawyer, I frequently must ask personal and embarrassing questions of a witness, or pour over gruesome evidence for hours on end.

However, everyone has the fundamental right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Against the powers of the police and the prosecutor, the only person who safeguards the rights of the accused is the criminal lawyer.

There are, of course, limits on the conduct of the defense in a criminal matter.

As an officer of the court, a criminal lawyer cannot mislead a judge or jury, nor introduce evidence which the lawyer knows is not true. To do so would be to participate in perjury. And good criminal lawyers rarely rant or rave, pound their fist or wag their finger in a courtroom. They are prepared, organized and quietly effective.

To answer the young lady’s question, I would say that criminal lawyers perform an essential function in our criminal justice system.

Our professional duties require us to protect the interests of people accused of crimes, within ethical bounds.

And, perhaps, I would pose a question of my own: