Gabriel Boutros – Inspiration for The Guilty

Inspiration for The Guilty

by Gabriel Boutros

During the nearly quarter century I spent as a defense attorney I often had occasion to think that certain cases I was working on would make for interesting books. I was far from the only lawyer to think that, you can be sure. Once I started taking my writing a little more seriously, and decided to take the step from short stories up to a full-length novel, I suppose it was only normal that I reach deep into my storehouse of professional experiences for the subject-matter of my first book.

In this case, a multi-murder case that I worked on many years earlier would serve as the framework of the trial that is central to my story. Of course, it is a very loose framework, because I wanted to have my characters deal with various ethical and personal conflicts which were not part of the real-life trial. In the real trial, the only concern was whether the accused would be convicted or acquitted. Of course I want the readers of my book to have a stake in the outcome of the fictional trial as well, but I also want them to care about the lawyer’s struggles with his own conscience.

The first step for me was to create my main character: Robert Bratt, a lawyer with, shall we say, flexible ethics, and who doesn’t care at all about his client. He only wants to win for himself and, as can happen when anyone begins to focus solely on satisfying his own needs, he ignores the potential consequences of his actions.

I enjoy reading, and writing, stories where the characters, even the main protagonists, are subject to human frailties. I just find these stories to be more interesting and compelling than those with clean-cut super heroes. And there are so many opportunities to bend or even break the rules in the legal profession, and there is so much pressure to succeed, that it made sense for me to write about a lawyer who gives in to that pressure, although he certainly comes to regret it.

Of course, through Bratt I get to express certain points of view which I may have thought from time to time, but never felt I could express out loud. He is cynical, maybe even burnt-out, and the way he sees the world he works in comes through in what he tells a young lawyer about the profession he’s entering.

“So, here’s rule number one, and if you only remember this rule you’ll be ahead of most new lawyers. When you take on a criminal case, every single person you deal with, every cop, every opposing lawyer, every witness, and absolutely every client you ever take on, will lie to you without hesitation when they think it’s in their best interests to do so. In the game of law you can’t depend on anyone to help you and you can’t trust anyone, especially your client.”