Mr. Chad Piotrowski is a criminal defense attorney whose practice focuses on state and federal criminal defense, police brutality and civil rights.
In a recent exchange, Mr. Piotrowski spoke to Haute Media Group co-founder and COO Seth Semilof for the latest edition of the Haute Lawyer Webinar series. In this engaging conversation, Mr. Piotrowski shares the intriguing journey that led him into the legal profession. From humorous family nudges about not having a middle name suitable for a lawyer’s door to being awarded “most likely to be a lawyer” in third grade, Chad’s path seemed predestined. His unwavering commitment to criminal defense was evident as he focused on related courses throughout college and eventually became a prosecutor. As he transitioned to the defense side, Chad passionately discusses the importance of his work, emphasizing the vital role defense lawyers play in upholding the law, protecting the Constitution, and safeguarding the rights of both the guilty and the truly innocent, as highlighted by his recent success in getting a murder case dismissed.
Seth Semilof: What made you want to become a lawyer? Tell us a little about going to law school and your decisions to get into law.
Chad Piotrowski: I think my family prompted me to get into law from the moment I was born. I don’t have a middle name. My name’s Chad Piotrowski. My dad joked around and he said, we can’t give him a middle name. It’s going to be too long to put on a lawyer’s door. So that was kind of like my first experience with my family kind of nudging me to be a lawyer. And then in third grade, I won an award for most likely to be a lawyer. So I kind of think I was always on that path. And naturally, through college, I just kind of made the decision to go to law school. Criminal defense was the only type of law I wanted to practice. So when I was in law school, I focused primarily on the criminal law classes. And when I graduated law school, the only job I wanted was to be a prosecutor. And I landed in Miami-Dade County and I was a prosecutor. I was an assistant state attorney under Kathy Fernandez-Rundle. And I held that position for four years to the day.
Seth Seminof: As a criminal defense laywer, how would you explain the importance of the work you and your colleagues do.As you said, you went on the dark side. Does that bother you?
Chad Piotrowski: It doesn’t bother me at all. I enjoy it. I always tell people, I represent a lot of innocent people, people that are wrongfully… I just got a murder case dismissed today. It was a young lady that got caught up. She was on camera in the same area, and the officers came in and arrested her and charged her as a principal in a homicide and she was completely innocent. We just got that case dismissed today but you know truly innocent people come across my desk every single day and I always tell people you know if I don’t defend the rights of the guilty how can I defend the rights of the truly innocent if people are just going to get railroaded because they think they’re guilty and they did it, what’s going to happen to that innocent person? So we’re Liberty’s last champion, if you will, and we have to uphold the law and protect the Constitution, and that’s what we do. I know we get a bad rap, but I think it’s a very honorable job.
Watch the video below to enjoy the entire conversation:
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