Breaking Bad: Lawyer Seeks Supplemental Income
Who hasn’t been there before – a little short on funds for the month, with rent coming due and a credit card bill looming over your head? We can’t all be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet and have an endless bank account to draw from. Even lawyers could use a little extra cash from time to time. Some of them are a little more creative than others when it comes to building an extra-curricular cash flow.
Holly Hogue Edwards of Atlanta Georgia was caught allegedly “conducting illegal activities” in her local Monroe County. What illegal activities in particular? The crime of sale and distribution of illegal drugs. The report states, “Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Holly Hogue Edwards on multiple charges, including four counts of distributing oxycodone and one count of distributing methamphetamine.” Sounds a little ironic for a lawyer who titled herself “your go-to girl for criminal and DUI defense.”
Edwards was caught soliciting drugs to an undercover officer. This was no random shakedown. Edwards had been part of an ongoing criminal investigation run by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. This concluded what appears to have been a multi-month long operation by the Sheriff’s Department. Edwards seems to have been driven to her illicit acts by financial trouble. She was unable to afford representation, and unwilling to represent herself and assigned a public defender by the state. While the public perception generally views lawyers as quite wealthy, the reality is often the opposite. The cost of law school is exorbitant, debt grows quickly, and job prospects for young lawyers can be bleak. It is easy to imagine a scenario in which a young lawyer could fall into a desperate financial predicament.
Edwards ran her own law practice, which she founded in 2009. Its struggles could very well be what drove her into an alleged life of crime. Of all people, you would think a criminal defense attorney would know that crime doesn’t pay!