When James Comey took office as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2002, he described an earlier transition, from Assistant U.S. Attorney to corporate defense lawyer, as a “major adjustment.”

“You go from being paid to do the right thing every day, from having the freedom never to make an argument you don’t believe in, to being a defense attorney, where you are duty-bound to make the best argument you can,” he told the New York Law Journal. “I have a tremendous respect for people who do defense work, and it’s not lying, but in a private moment, sometimes, you say, ‘Geez, this is a bunch of baloney.’”

How pathetic. Is Comey someone you would want representing your brother or mother if they got in trouble? I wouldn't let him represent my third cousin in a D.U.I. case, let alone something serious.

It is irksome beyond description that these former prosecutors think they can change jobs and overnight become members of the defense bar. When Joe DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing left the Government as prosecutors to open their own "defense" firm, specializing as far as I can tell in defending public officials who get in trouble, they joined the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I remember when they came to a meeting we had in Miami, sometime in the 90's. All I heard from members was, "Isn't there some way we can stop them from joining?" and "It makes me want to gag that they are now members." The answer was no, they are as entitled as anyone else who is not an active prosecutor to become a member.

It's true that some former prosecutors see the light and get converted. All it takes is one case in which they believe the Government is egregiously trampling on their client's rights. But until they get that case, they are disdainful at heart, as if they are being forced to wash dirty laundry.

To be clear, I'm not talking about defense lawyers who were prosecutors only for a few years when they started out and who took the job as a way to get trial experience, not because they had a "G-d's work" mentality. Nor am I talking about career defense lawyers who take a break to become a high-level prosecutor for a short time because they are a friend to a high-level politician. There are many in these two groups who either are or become as true a defense lawyer as even the most stalwart public defender. But for the most part, those who begin and stay in a prosecutor's job long enough to rise high in the Department of Justice should never try to change sides. It will eat them up inside and they will never get it. All the more pity to them.

There are other options for these career prosecutors. One is to leave criminal law behind and become general counsel for a corporation. They can make their fortune there. The other is to become a federal judge. Look at Bush's nominations, from Michael Chertoff to Jay Bybee to William Haynes and others. Even Democrats are in awe of former prosecutors. They would salivate at the opportunity to recommend someone like James Comey for a judgeship. And Comey, as well as some of the successful prosecutors now leaving the U.S. Attorneys' Office in New York, would probably make fine judges. But defense attorneys when your life depends upon it? No, no and no.