From Shiftless to Shifty: My Forty-six Years as a Public Defender

This is the story of how Attorney Wood practiced law in the criminal courts for forty-six years, starting off with little training or background from his traditional law school education (and, as he says, "with little aptitude for it!"). The story is told with humor and compassion for the clients he represented. During the course of his career, Mr. Wood learned how to successfully navigate the criminal courts, and he describes how the legal community responded to his evolving and sometimes unorthodox manner of dealing with his cases.

Mr. Wood takes on the shibboleths of the legal world in his own unique way and provides a fascinating account of law practice from his slightly irreverent viewpoint. In addition to stories about his practice, he has included several chapters in which he walks the reader through the many stages of representing a client in a criminal matter.