J.W. CARNEY, JR. is a criminal defense attorney with the Boston firm of Carney & Bassil. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and Boston College Law School, and grew up in the Boston Municipal Court. He was a public defender in Boston for five years, and an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County for the next five years. He founded Carney & Bassil with Janice Bassil in 1989. Mr. Carney is a contributing author to the treatises Massachusetts Criminal Practice and Take the Witness: The Experts Speak on Cross-Examination, and is the editor and a co-author of Massachusetts Evidence: A Courtroom Reference. He has had over 175 jury trials in the Superior Court and Federal Court. He became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1996, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than a decade. Mr. Carney was a member of the Governor's Judicial Nominating Commission for eleven years, and since 1992, he has been the co-chair of the Lawyers' Assistance Strike Force of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. Carney's mentor is Horace Rumpole of the Old Bailey. (October 2011)