By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

REMSEN STREET — The Brooklyn Bar Association opened its doors on Tuesday night for an educational course on the practice of criminal law, taught by four experts in the field.

The speakers were Kings County Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters Barry Kamins, Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Miriam Cyrulnik, and criminal defense attorneys George A. Farkas and his son, Michael C. Farkas. All four brought their own special expertise to this course, entitled “Real-Life Practice of Criminal Law.�

“It’s for new attorneys looking to get into criminal practice or for those who’ve already been practicing for one, two, three years, but are looking to get into something new,� Judge Kamins, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, said of the course.

“And not shoot themselves in the foot while doing it,� George Farkas added.

Both Kamins and Cyrulnik are former presidents of the Brooklyn Bar Association. Kamins and George Farkas are former co-presidents of the Kings County Criminal Bar Association.

George Farkas, who began the talk, started by describing the panicked call from a defendant’s mother that an attorney often gets at some ungodly hour and went on to talk about the first steps in defending a client. While you need to protect your client, you also need to convince him to turn himself in, even if he claims to be innocent, Farkas said.

“To run from the police, you need approximately three million dollars,� he joked. He added that it can be hard to trust a client sometimes: “They first lie to their mother, and later they lie to their lawyer,� he said was a rule he learned about defendants while practicing for more than 35 years.

Michael Farkas, George’s son and an attorney with his own practice, followed up by talking about other stages of preparing a defendant for an arraignment and eventual trial. Michael focused his talk on “practicality versus theory,� he said.

Judge Kamins spoke about the differences in courthouses county-by-county across the state, and what local attorneys need to do if they have clients in other jurisdictions. He also reminded the attorneys that there is “no substitute for preparation� in handling a criminal trial — knowing the facts of the case, and being ready to argue with prosecutors.

Judge Cyrulnik, the last speaker of the evening, talked about how to handle arraignments and make effective bail arguments before a judge. It’s an area she’s experienced in, having exclusively handled arraignments at Brooklyn Criminal Court for a year.

“When a judge has 90 arraignments scheduled, it’s not time to get into detailed summations,� she said.

In addition to almost 70 attendees, Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Robert Kalish and Brooklyn Bar Association President John Lonuzzi were both also at the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course.

Lynette Wade was one attorney in attendance. She said she wasn’t currently practicing, but that work in criminal law might be in her future.

“It’s not easy work, but it’s the most accessible. There’ll always be criminals,� she said.

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