It wasn't the brightest decision she'd ever made. She admits that. But if she'd had enough money to hire a lawyer she might not have lost six months of her life.

Kimberly Hurrell-Harring, a certified nursing assistant and mother of two, had driven 7 1/2 hours to visit her husband and then secreted a small amount of marijuana in her private parts. He'd pleaded with her on the phone to bring it, saying he needed to get high in this awful place.

He was calling from a maximum-security prison, and someone must have been listening because when she walked into the Great Meadows Correctional Facility in upstate New York, guards immediately yanked her to the side.

They told her things would go easier if she handed over the dope without a fuss. She did, and things immediately got worse.

With a swiftness that made her head spin, she was handcuffed and hauled to jail. At her arraignment, there was no public defender available. Standing alone, she was charged with one felony count of bringing dangerous contraband into a prison.

And so she tumbled headlong into the Alice-in-Wonderland chaos of court-appointed lawyers, where even those lawyers say there is little time for clients. There are simply too many and not enough hours in the day.

"If you can't afford an attorney, and you fall into the criminal justice system, you are really, really screwed," said Demetrius Thomas of the New York American Civil Liberties Union.

Especially now. The spiraling recession and overwhelmed public defenders, some of whom have rebelled by filing lawsuits to reduce caseloads, pose one of the greatest challenges to the system since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 overturned the petty larceny and breaking-and-entering convictions of Clarence Gideon, a poor Florida man tried without a lawyer. In a landmark, unanimous ruling, justices said state courts must provide attorneys to every criminal defendant unable to afford counsel.

After her arraignment, Hurrell-Harring went back to jail because she couldn't afford bail, either. Three weeks passed before a public defender appeared, and she says she spent a total of 15 to 20 minutes with him before her sentencing hearing.

He told her not to fight the district attorney's recommended punishment — six months behind bars and five years of probation. It was the best she could hope for, he said. But she had no criminal record. Surely, she begged, couldn't possession of less than an ounce of pot, a misdemeanor under other circumstances, be bargained down to probation?

"It was like he had no time for me," she says now, still unemployed 17 months after her release because she lost her nursing license when she became a convicted felon. "He told me to plead guilty."

The accused, their lawyers, and even prosecutors agree that courts increasingly neglect their constitutional duties. In a series of Capitol Hill hearings, the latest scheduled for this week, Congress members are struggling to grasp the enormity of the crisis. But the options are far from clear, particularly when virtually every state and local government is crying poor.

General Motors Corp.'s primary bankruptcy law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is housed in New York in the aptly named GM building.


In June 2008, a group of investors purchased the iconic building on Fifth Avenue and three others in a $4 billion deal and said they might decide to sell the building's naming rights, which expire in 2010.

The law firm in 1996 renewed its 350,000 square feet of office space on 11 floors in the GM building for 21 years starting in 1998.

GM sold the building in 1991. The Detroit automaker's New York operations left its namesake building last year and moved into the Citigroup Center. In 1968, GM had 26 floors of office space in the 50-story building, but that had shrunk to just three by last year.

Mike Stefani "engaged in conduct that is contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals," the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission said in a nine-page complaint. Staff at the grievance commission act as investigators and prosecutors of misconduct by lawyers.

"I was simply representing my clients to the best of my ability," Stefani said. "I'm not going to accept allegations that I'm dishonest or committed a crime." He added: "I'm going to defend my reputation."

The text messages were "irrefutable" evidence that Kilpatrick, a lawyer, committed perjury at a 2007 civil trial when he denied having an affair with a top aide, but Stefani didn't notify the commission in a timely manner, investigators said.

Stefani obtained Kilpatrick's text messages by sending a subpoena to SkyTel Inc., the city's communications provider.

The messages arrived in October 2007, a few weeks after the police officers' trial. The officers claimed Kilpatrick punished them because they were investigating wrongdoing by his inner circle.

The Reed Smith law firm said it will cut salaries for all U.S. associates by 10 percent across the board, effective July 1.

In an internal memo that was originally leaked to the Web site Abovethelaw.com Wednesday afternoon, managing partner Gregory Jordan said the firm had already adopted changes to its business plan because of the recession, changing client demands, and the competitive landscape in the legal industry. Among other things, Jordan said it has meant lower compensation levels for partners, though he did not specify by how much.

A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based firm, which has about 280 employees in Philadelphia, confirmed the authenticity of the memo.

Jordan said the firm will set the salaries for the incoming class of first-year associates in the United States at a later date, but they will be at least 10 percent lower than the current levels. Jordan said the firm will freeze associates’ salaries in its European and Middle Eastern offices, and will set the starting salary for newly qualified associates in the United Kingdom about 10 percent lower than the current level. Asian operations are not affected by the action.

A computer expert claims in a lawsuit that Minneapolis law firm Leonard, Street and Deinard owes him $775,000 for storing digital evidence in a case involving the city’s two largest newspapers.

Mark Lanterman of Computer Forensic Services said he stored 62 terabytes of Star Tribune data, costing $155,000 a month, for five or six months before he deleted it, the Star Tribune reports. He claims the law firm still owes him $775,000 in unpaid bills.

The law firm’s reply to the suit says Lanterman has already been paid "handsomely" for every invoice he submitted on time, for a total of $854,000, the story says. The last invoice came in too late for the firm to bill the Star Tribune, ordered to pay expenses in the case, the court document said. The firm also says it didn’t have a signed contract with Lanterman.

Los Angeles County Superior Court officials announced Tuesday they would shut down court operations one day a month and furlough employees to address a projected $90-million shortfall caused by the state's continuing budget crisis.

The county's 600 courtrooms and all court services including traffic matters will be closed the third Wednesday of each month, starting July 15, saving about $18 million annually, court officials said. Chief Justice Ronald George of the California Supreme Court is considering taking the monthly closures statewide, officials said.

If the financial situation does not improve, the courts could eventually lay off as many as 1,300 employees, or a quarter of the workforce, in the next four years, said Charles "Tim" McCoy, presiding judge of the county's court system. Such cuts would lead to total closure of some courthouses and massive cuts in court services, he said.

"The justice system provides public safety. That system needs to be operating five days a week," McCoy said at a news conference. The monthly closure plan, he said, "puts the public at some risk."

McCoy said a handful of courtrooms would remain open on the furlough days to handle emergency matters. He said he anticipated a backlog of cases to build up as a result of the closures.

An administration official says the Democratic governor is coming to the White House for an event unrelated to the Supreme Court. It is not clear whether Granholm will be meeting with Obama about the upcoming vacancy on the court.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details of Tuesday's event have not been announced.

Granholm is among more than six people Obama is considering for the seat on the court now held by Justice David Souter, who is retiring this summer.

The 50-year-old Granholm is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general.