I know I've mellowed a bit, but I think most people have known me as a tough adversary. I'm still a no-nonsense kind of lawyer, and I expect I'll always be.

Everyone is afraid of the unknown, and a lot of what I do is help remove the fear of the unknown. When you come to me I'm going to tell you what's likely to happen - if I think your case can be negotiated with authorities, or whether I think it will go to trial. If there are anti-social or destructive elements in a case - such as drug abuse - I'll recommend, to the client and to prosecutors, some form of pretrial intervention.

So I am a guide. If you are going to a foreign country, you need a guide. For a person facing criminal charges - and a powerful and huge government judicial process - that's the role I play for my clients.

Some say that trial lawyers are egotistical - well, they are probably right. Because we have to be. Every day the courtroom experience had a lot of ups and downs - a judge will dress you down in a minute. And when I go home every night, the wellsprings of my own ego help recharge me. I know I've always had a lot of confidence - but I think that's what's inside every good criminal attorney.

Civil litigation was never really for me. Civil cases can take three years of more of your time. I just don't want to be in that morass of litigation neurosis.

I've always been a criminal-defense attorney. It was very unusual for a senior partner of any firm to be a criminal lawyer. But that's where I made my name.

Do I love the law? It's more than that. The law defines me. It's going to define me forever. And I'll be practicing law until my body won't let me any more.