Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who does this thing?
My name is Nathaniel Burney, and I do all the drawing and wording. Please call me Nathan. Do not call me Nat or Nate — it confuses me and I get this worried look.
2. Are you really a lawyer?
Yes indeed! And I love it.
I went to Georgetown Law, where I was an editor of the American Criminal Law Review. While in law school, I spent a couple of years as personal assistant to retired Chief Justice Warren Burger. When he passed away, I organized a warehouse full of his papers, identifying everything important for preservation at the National Archives and the Burger Library. When that was complete, Carter Phillips hired me on as a Special Associate at Sidley & Austin, where I helped him on cases before the Supreme Court and worked on some high-profile cases with other attorneys. I interned with the terrorism unit of the SDNY, which was a blast.
After graduation, I started out defending juveniles in D.C., then joined the Manhattan D.A.’s office as a prosecutor. I spent my first several years seconded to the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, where in addition to handling the largest caseload in the office and trying a bunch of cases, I also ran an investigation that took down a large multinational trafficking organization operating in several U.S. states and Latin American countries. From there, I joined the Rackets Bureau, where I ran several very large investigations into organized crime and political corruption. There, in addition to taking down a Genovese capo my bosses assured me was “untouchable,” along much of the family’s leadership, I also became the first (only?) person to not only convict the leadership of a Mafia-corrupted labor union, but also the union itself (ensuring the crime couldn’t just keep going with new faces).
After the birth of my second child, it was too expensive to live in NYC on a line assistant’s meager salary, so I switched to private practice. I started out managing a consumer-advocacy firm outside D.C., where I successfully advocated for some consumer credit changes among other things. Then I returned to NYC, where I’ve mostly practiced criminal defense, both white-collar and street crime, federal and state.
[Editing this in June 2024 to add that some of my notable clients included the Bear Stearns fund manager who didn’t get prosecuted (pause for applause) in the wake of the financial crisis, and frankly a lot of people who didn’t get prosecuted if they came to me first. And I won some really cool cases for others who came to me after trying someone else first. I had some heartbreaking losses, but unusually for a defense attorney I can honestly say I won the overwhelming majority of the time. Ouch, I think I might have just broken my arm from patting myself on the back so hard. It’s okay, nobody reads this stuff anyway, and I’ve never really bragged on myself like this before, so it’s nice just seeing it in writing. (Okay, you want to hear bragging? In three consecutive trials, I achieved the impossible, and got the prosecution’s star witness to admit on the stand that they’d lied to the jury under oath during their direct examination. This never, never, NEVER happens in real life. The lesson? Always be the most thoroughly-prepared person in the courtroom, period.)
Anyway, a few years back we moved down south where my wife got hired as a university professor. So I wound down my New York practice and am now back in school to get those academic degrees necessary to become a professor myself. Apparently a J.D. isn’t enough if you want to teach for a living. Wish me luck!]
3. So why are you doing a webcomic?
I didn’t mean to. It just kinda happened.
See, I had this law blog on my website. Fairly wordy, written for fellow lawyers. And I’d had this recurring kind of post where I tried to debunk some of the amazingly idiotic myths that persist about the law. Then I realized that the people who actually believe these myths aren’t likely to read a densely-worded law blog. So I started a little Tumblr on the side, with some hasty doodles to get the ideas across more easily. I didn’t think anybody would read it. Within two months I had a book deal, and ever since I’ve been frantically trying to figure out how to draw better. Advice is gratefully accepted (and many thanks to the established webcomic artists who’ve given me some pretty good tips!)
Anyway, I haven’t quit my day job. And I spend as much time as I can playing with the wife and kids. So I basically work on this during the time I used to spend watching TV and playing video games AND I MISS IT SO MUCH!
4. Who is this meant for?
The words and illustrations are all composed with an American high-school student in mind. But my target audience is literally anyone who wants to know more about American law and how it really works. I’ve met readers from all walks of life, from dishwashers to university professors, and from all around the world.
[Edit to add: Several high school and college courses actually assign the Illustrated Guide as part of their classwork, and I definitely get a big traffic spike around law school exam time. That’s incredibly humbling, and it drives me to be as thorough and careful as possible, but at least here on lawcomic.net there’s never any homework or exams. Just the “class participation” section on each page, where people a lot smarter than me share their ideas and expertise — it’s literally the best part.]
5. Where are all the case names and citations?
I’m not trying to get you through law school. I’m trying to get the points and principles across. Case names and citations don’t help, they only get in the way.
I made a conscious choice at the beginning not to use them. They add nothing to the discussion, can confuse matters (especially since even well-known names like Miranda v. Arizona tell you nothing about a case’s subject matter), and for the most part nobody cares what the name of the case was that added the fourth element to the test we now use.
But also, it frees me up from the tyranny of the casebook. Law school teaches concepts bit by bit, assembling rules from decisions of many cases. Always the same cases. But by ignoring case names, I get to come up with my own scenarios that let me present the rules all at once, in a manner that’s hopefully more easy to understand.
6. So what else are you leaving out?
Not much, I hope. If I do this right, you’ll learn all the important concepts that would be covered in a first-year law school class — the “what” — as well as the policies behind them — the “why.”
7. What other webcomics do you read?
All kinds, it varies.
8. Beverage of choice?
Scotch. Neat.
9. Do you moderate the comments?
Almost never. Once in a blue moon I’ll have to step in when someone’s trying to use my site as a forum to spread misinformation, or if someone’s being a jerk to others. I won’t tolerate that kind of stuff, but it’s astonishingly rare. Most of the comments are civil and thoroughly interesting — my favorites are the ones that catch me out in a mistake, or present a different way of looking at things.
10. Can I contact you?
Sure. Email me at n.e.burney@gmail.com.
October 2012