To protect your freedom, your career, and your good name, hiring civilian counsel as opposed to active military counsel may be preferred or even necessary for a number of reasons. For example, when you accept free legal counsel provided by the military, your case is assigned to an attorney based on who is available at the moment. That means your own preferences or interests are not taken into account. Simply put, you get who you get. On the other hand, when you hire outside legal counsel from a private civilian defense attorney, you have the power to choose someone you trust and feel comfortable with handling your case. You have a say in who represents you, and you are able to factor in your own preferences. As such, make sure you choose someone with the right attitude, experience, time, dedication, and any other qualities that matter to you. Another huge advantage to obtaining civilian counsel is that they are not subject to threats or intimidation the way that military defense attorneys are. Things like the chain of command, ranking, and supervisory chain of responsibility have no influence or effect whatsoever on civilian counsel. This means there is nothing to distract or deter them from pursuing your best interests. For example, a defense attorney like Aden Wilkie is completely unconcerned about things such as an evaluation report or an opportunity for promotion. Unlike military-assigned counsel who must work under restraints by their chain of command, Aden does what is necessary to best represent the interests of his clients. There is no chain of command or other influencing factors at play when the Devil Dog Defender takes on your case. Yet another benefit to hiring a civilian lawyer vs military lawyer is knowing that they are 100% dedicated to your case and will put in the time and effort it takes to build the strongest defense possible. As a private attorney working for himself, Aden Wilkie gets to choose which cases he takes on and when he takes them on. He is careful not to overload his schedule so that he can dedicate enough time and resources to the cases he does choose to take on. Meanwhile, military-provided counsel does not have a say in the cases they get. They are responsible for taking every case that comes through the door, which often means they are overloaded, overwhelmed, and overworked. This grants them significantly less time to focus on your case, which in turn can have a significantly negative effect on the outcome of your case.