Broadening the Holistic Mindset: Incorporating Collateral Consequences and Reentry into Criminal Defense Lawyering

In this article, Professor Michael Pinard highlights the holistic model of criminal defense representation, which seeks to address the myriad issues that often lead to the client’s involvement with the criminal justice system with the overarching goal of providing a comprehensive solution to those underlying factors. While lauding these developments, however, Professor Pinard argues that the holistic model has largely overlooked two facets of the criminal justice system that impact greatly the client’s life once the formal representation has concluded: the collateral consequences of criminal convictions and reentry. Professor Pinard explores the emerging attention devoted to these two components, but argues that the holistic model of criminal defense representation has yet to embrace fully services related to them. He concludes that the holistic model should incorporate the collateral consequences and reentry components, addressing some of the potential hurdles to full inclusion and providing examples of defense organizations that have begun to address these issues