Criminal defense lawyers recognize they cannot gauge the pain, panic or despair their clients feel may at trial. So they try to guide clients through the alien and unfriendly process of a case by telling it to them straight and giving them choices. It is, after all, the lawyer's job to explore what the best possible resolution of the case is. The best plea, for instance, or whether to testify or remain silent. And then to present the advice to the client. The challenge is to neither understate nor overstate the risks. Because while the defense counsel will go home at night, the client may risk going to jail. And so the lawyer's job is to fight, aggressively and tirelessly, for the client. This book provides insider's tips on winning a case for the defendant.

Based on a trial diary kept by Michael S. Pasano, it documents the day-to-day developments of the high-profile 2009 trial of Luisa Inclán Bird, an advisor to Puerto Rico's former governor. Each step of the trial, from preparation and jury selection to media coverage, cross-examination, and closing, is enhanced with sample questions and practical tools for use in the courtroom. Told in "real time", the book is filled with observations and comments about how criminal defense work is done; what succeeds and does not succeed; how criminal defense attorneys perform their work; and what well-planned steps they take toward winning a judgment for their clients.