Court Opinion

ID: 9544052
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:51:36.750892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:11:52.346139
License: Public Domain

KENNAKD, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I join the majority in reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeal. I write separately, however, to voice my disagreement with certain portions of the majority’s analysis of each of the two issues in this case.
The first issue concerns the admissibility of a conversation between defendant and a lawyer acquaintance, John Lueck, at defendant’s home, in the course of which defendant made inculpatory statements. The majority upholds the trial court’s ruling that none of the conversation was protected by the attorney-client privilege. I disagree. Although the inculpatory statements themselves were not privileged, the privilege did apply to other portions of defendant’s conversation with Lueck.
The second issue involves defendant’s allegation that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct during his final argument to the jury. The majority concludes that the prosecutor’s argument was, in general, permissible. In the *1222course of its discussion, the majority observes that the prosecutor was entitled to recite to the jury a series of quotations implying that lawyers lie. I disagree. It was defendant, not his lawyer, who was on trial. Comments criticizing the legal profession generally perform no legitimate function in argument to the jury; they simply play upon the deep-rooted distrust that many persons feel for lawyers, thereby distracting jurors from their duty to determine guilt or innocence based on the law and the evidence presented. In a recent decision, we chastised the prosecutor for engaging in such conduct; we should do the same here. I agree with the majority, however, that defendant may not now challenge the prosecutor’s conduct because of defendant’s failure to object to it at trial.
I
Defendant was charged with hiring two men who brutally attacked his former wife, Aissa Marie Wayne, and her Mend, Roger Luby. At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of a conversation between defendant, a physician, and John Lueck, an attorney who frequently referred his clients to defendant for medical evaluations.
According to Lueck, defendant telephoned Lueck in the spring of 1987, a year and a half before the attack on Wayne and Luby, saying that Wayne had served him with divorce papers and he needed someone to talk to. Lueck agreed to come to defendant’s home, but he said he would not represent defendant in any divorce proceedings because of his acquaintance with Wayne as well as defendant.
Upon his amval at defendant’s house, Lueck found defendant tearful and angry. Showing Lueck some holes in the wall, defendant remarked that the altercation between defendant and Wayne that caused the holes was “nothing” compared to what he was capable of doing, and that Wayne had “no idea” how easy it would be for him to pay somebody to “really take care of her.” Lueck observed that if anything did happen to Wayne, defendant would be the obvious suspect. Defendant replied that he was “too smart to do something like that” at a time when suspicion would focus on him, and that if he was going to do anything to Wayne he would wait for an opportune time. He added that if he had to leave the country, he would stay with friends in Greece.
Defendant also showed Lueck a declaration by Wayne in support of a request for an “Order to Show Cause.” Pointing out that his wife was the daughter of John Wayne, the late actor and a former resident of Orange County (which had named its airport after him) defendant inquired into the *1223advisability of asking the trial court to transfer the case from Orange County to Los Angeles County. Lueck responded that a motion for change of venue might be appropriate, but he did not offer to take on the task. Instead, he told defendant to get himself a good lawyer right away.
Four months later, defendant, who had retained another lawyer to represent him in the dissolution, asked Lueck to make an emergency appearance in the case on his behalf. Lueck did so, and defendant paid him $750.
Defendant argues that the trial court should have sustained his objection to Attorney Lueck’s testimony regarding the conversation at defendant’s home, on the ground that the conversation was protected by the attorney-client privilege. The majority upholds the trial court’s ruling that none of defendant’s conversation with Lueck was protected by the privilege. I disagree. As I shall explain, certain portions of defendant’s conversation with Attorney Lueck were indeed protected by the attorney-client privilege; nevertheless, because the inculpatory statements in that conversation were not privileged, the trial court’s erroneous conclusion that the entire conversation was not protected by the privilege was harmless.
Evidence Code section 952 provides that “information transmitted between a client and his or her lawyer in the course of [their] relationship and in confidence” is protected by the attorney-client privilege. At issue here is whether defendant was a “client” of Attorney Lueck, thus rendering their conversation at defendant’s home privileged.
Evidence Code section 951 defines a “client” as a person who “consults a lawyer for the purpose of retaining the lawyer or securing advice from him in his professional capacity . . . .” (Italics added.) Here, Lueck had explicitly told defendant before going to defendant’s house of his unwillingness to represent defendant in his divorce, because he knew both defendant and his wife. The record contains no evidence that Lueck changed his mind dining his visit at defendant’s house. Therefore, I agree with the majority that in the conversation at issue defendant was not consulting Lueck for “the purpose of’ retaining him. This conclusion, however, does not dispose of the question whether any of defendant’s conversation with Lueck was privileged. For Evidence Code section 951 also provides that an attorney-client relationship arises when “a person . . . consults a lawyer for the purpose of . . . securing advice from him in his professional capacity.” California cases have not analyzed the meaning of the phrase “professional capacity,” as used in Evidence Code section 951, and the majority never directly addresses the issue of whether an attorney-client relationship arose between Lueck and defendant within the meaning of this statutory term.
*1224Most commonly, an individual seeks advice from an attorney in the latter’s “professional capacity” upon retaining the attorney for the purpose of representation in court or the performance of other legal services. Here, as I have explained, at the time of the conversation at issue defendant had not retained Attorney Lueck. But Evidence Code section 951 does not limit the creation of an attorney-client relationship to those situations in which the attorney has been retained or retention is under consideration.
The determination whether an individual is seeking advice from an attorney in the attorney’s “professional capacity” requires a close analysis of the facts in each case: “In view of the frequency with which some persons seek to obtain informally and gratuitously valuable legal advice, and the lamentable frequency with which attorneys submit to such an imposition . . . , it is often difficult to determine whether the consultation is a professional one, within the privilege. The local habits of life, and the circumstances of the case, must largely determine the ruling.” (8 Wigmore, Evidence (McNaughton ed. 1961) Consultation in Attorney’s Capacity, § 2303, p. 584, fin. omitted.) Wigmore explains: “[T]he mere circumstance that the advice is given gratuitously does not nullify the privilege.” (Ibid., fin. omitted.)
In this case, Attorney Lueck testified that, in response to a specific inquiry by defendant regarding the advisability of asking the trial court to transfer the case from Orange County to Los Angeles County, he told defendant it might be appropriate to do so. In rendering this legal advice, Lueck was acting in his “professional capacity” as an attorney, thus triggering the attorney-client privilege as to this aspect of the conversation.1
I now turn to those portions of the conversation in which defendant made inculpatory statements to Lueck. At trial, Lueck testified that during his visit to defendant’s home, defendant made these statements: an altercation between defendant and Wayne that resulted in the holes in the wall at the couple’s home; the altercation was “nothing” compared to what defendant was capable of doing; Wayne “had no idea” how easy it would be for defendant to pay someone “to really take care of her,” defendant was “too smart to do something” to Wayne at a time when suspicion would be drawn to him; and, if defendant were to do something, he would wait for the right time.
None of these inculpatory statements had any bearing on defendant’s inquiry of Attorney Lueck regarding the legal advisability of requesting a *1225change of venue. Nor does the evidence show that defendant made any of these statements while seeking Lueck’s professional advice on any other legal matter. The statements were simply blunt observations by defendant that he was capable of, and contemplating the commission of, a violent assault on Wayne, either by himself or by hired thugs. Therefore, the attorney-client privilege did not attach to these inculpatory statements by defendant. As Attorney Lueck stated in a letter to the State Bar (which the trial court considered when it ruled on defendant’s assertion that the conversation between Lueck and himself was privileged), the attorney-client privilege “existed for the sole purpose of discussing issues concerning [defendant’s] impending divorce and not concerning his expressed intention to hire someone to harm his wife.” Accordingly, the trial court properly admitted Lueck’s testimony that defendant made each of the inculpatory statements.2
Although, for the reasons I have given, the trial court erred in ruling that no part of the conversation between defendant and Attorney Lueck was protected by the attorney-client privilege, I conclude that the privileged portion of the conversation, in which defendant and Lueck discussed the legal advisability of seeking a motion for a change of venue in defendant’s divorce case, was irrelevant to the criminal charges in this case. It is therefore not reasonably probable that, absent the error, the outcome of defendant’s criminal trial would have been different. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].)
II
I now consider the issue of prosecutorial misconduct. At the commencement of his rebuttal argument, when defense counsel had no further opportunity to address the jury, the prosecutor told the jury that there was “a difference between evidence and lawyering,” and implied that defense counsel’s closing argument to the jury fell into the latter category. He first illustrated this difference by reminding the jury of an instance in which *1226defense counsel had made inconsistent arguments.3 He then mentioned that he had “a Roget’s Thesaurus of quotations” containing “famous quotes” about lawyers, and read to the jury these five quotations: (1) “Lawyers and painters can soon change white to black.” (2) “If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.” (3) “There is no better way of exercising the imagination than the study of law. No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets truth.” (4) “You’re an attorney. It’s your duty to lie, conceal and distort everything and slander everybody.” (The trial court sustained defendant’s objection to this quotation.) (5) “In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt but being seasoned with a gracious voice, obscures the show of evil.” The prosecutor said that his purpose in reading these quotations to the jury was to show that “throughout the history of time people have recognized the difference between right and wrong, true evidence and lawyering that make things sound flowery.”
The majority correctly concludes that because defendant objected only to the fourth of these five quotations, he may not now challenge the remainder. Although this would have disposed of the issue, the majority nevertheless proceeds to consider the comments to which defendant raised no objection, and it finds “no impropriety” in the prosecutor’s conduct. (Maj. opn., ante, p. 1216.) I disagree. In my view, the prosecutor engaged in misconduct when he interjected these quotations into the trial.
I recognize that attorneys are given wide latitude in closing argument. (People v. Bell (1989) 49 Cal.3d 502, 538 [262 Cal.Rptr. 1, 778 P.2d 129].) “Closing argument may be vigorous and may include opprobrious epithets when they are reasonably warranted by the evidence.” (People v. Sandoval (1992) 4 Cal.4th 155, 180 [14 Cal.Rptr.2d 342, 841 P.2d 862].) But a closing summation “denigrating counsel instead of the evidence” transgresses the boundary between permissible argument and misconduct. (Id. at p. 184.) In this case, the prosecutor crossed that line.
It is well accepted that comments in closing argument disparaging opposing counsel and the legal profession are impermissible: “An attack on the defendant’s attorney can be as seriously prejudicial as an attack on the defendant himself, and, in view of the accepted doctrines of legal ethics . . . it is never excusable.” (5 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law (2d ed. 1989) Prejudicial Remarks Against Counsel, § 2914, p. 3570; see also People v. *1227Sandoval, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 184 [“Personal attacks on opposing counsel are improper and irrelevant to the issues.”].)
Recently, this court held that quotations critical of the legal profession have no place in closing argument to the jury. (People v. Hawthorne (1992) 4 Cal.4th 43, 60 [14 Cal.Rptr.2d 133, 841 P.2d 118].) In Hawthorne, the prosecutor impugned the integrity of defense counsel, in part by quoting from a concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice White in United States v. Wade (1967) 388 U.S. 218, 256-258 [18 L.Ed.2d 1149, 1174-1175, 87 S.Ct. 1926].4 We condemned the prosecutor’s conduct: “The closing statements of counsel should relate to the law and the facts of the case as each side interprets them. [The quotation] interject[s] an extraneous generalization, potentially diverting the jury’s attention from the specifics upon which they must focus.” (People v. Hawthorne, supra, at p. 60.) Here, too, each of the quotations used by the prosecutor interjected “an extraneous generalization, potentially diverting the jury’s attention . . . .”
According to the majority, the quotations were appropriate because they “simply pointed out that attorneys are schooled in the art of persuasion; they did not improperly imply that defense counsel was lying.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 1216.) But even if the quotations did not accuse counsel of lying,5 they certainly attacked his integrity. This is what the prosecutor said: Lawyers “change white to black” and “freely” interpret truth, their arguments are *1228“tainted and corrupt,” and they use a “gracious voice” to “obscuref] the show of evil.” These comments amount to a broadside attack on the integrity of the legal profession, accusing lawyers of hiding the truth for corrupt purposes.6
By asserting that lawyers obscure the truth in an attempt to nlislead the jury, the prosecutor strongly implied that defense counsel in this case was behaving in the same manner. (Of course, the prosecutor never mentioned io the jury that the quotations, which attacked the integrity of all lawyers, could be applied to himself as well as to defense counsel.) As one federal court stated recently: “[Cjomments by prosecutors to the effect that a defense attorney’s job is to mislead the jury in order to gamer an acquittal for his client [are] not only distasteful but border[] on being unethical. See ABA Code of Prof. Resp. EC 7-10, 7-37. Such comments only serve to denigrate the legal profession in the eyes of the jury and, consequently, the public at large. . . . [Such comments] should not be tolerated by either the trial judge or the bar.” (U.S. v. Linn (10th Cir. 1994) 31 F.3d 987, 993.)
Tme, one of the prosecutor’s quotations in this case—“If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers”—did not directly attack the legal profession. Rather, it attacked defendant himself, implying to the jury that if defendant was innocent he would not have had to hire a good lawyer. In other words, the better the lawyer, the greater the likelihood of the client’s guilt. I find this observation by the prosecutor just as reprehensible as the other comments I have discussed.
Unlike the majority, I would conclude that the prosecutor committed misconduct when he recited the quotations concerning lawyers to the jury.7 Defendant, however, objected to only one of the quotations, and the trial court sustained the objection. Because any prejudice resulting from the prosecutor’s use of the other quotations could have been cured by a timely objection by defendant and an admonition by the court to the jury to disregard the comment, defendant is barred from now challenging the prosecutor’s conduct. (People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 440 [3 Cal.Rptr.2d 106, 821 P.2d 610].)
Conclusion
A trial should not be a duel between attorneys, but a search for truth. An attorney’s closing argument should therefore focus on the applicable law and *1229on the evidence presented. It should not discuss the qualities of opposing counsel; still less should it denigrate the legal profession in general. Such conduct serves only to interject extraneous material into the trial, “potentially diverting the jury’s attention” from its task to apply the law to what it determines to be the true facts. (People v. Hawthorne, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 60.)
Here, the prosecutor’s use, in closing argument to the jury, of comments impugning the integrity of the legal profession in general, and by inference the integrity of the defense attorney in particular, was improper. By condoning the use of such comments, the majority implicitly furthers the public’s deep-rooted suspicion and distrust of lawyers.
MOSK, J., Dissenting.
I agree with Justice Kennard for the reasons stated in her concurring and dissenting opinion that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct during portions of his rebuttal argument by attempting to place defense counsel and the legal profession on trial in order to advance his own legal strategy. This hypocritical maneuver placed before the jury matters that were irrelevant, and that were designed to subtly undermine the adversarial process by turning defense counsel’s advocacy against the defendant. A timely objection to these remarks should have beep sustained. I also agree with Justice Kennard, however, that absent an objection we cannot find the prosecutor’s improper remarks were prejudicial.
I dissent from the majority and from Justice Kennard on the question of the admission of John Lueck’s testimony. The record in this case, despite Lueck’s and the majority’s self-serving characterization, shows that defendant consulted Lueck primarily in the latter’s capacity as an attorney, and that any statements made by defendant during the course of the consultation were privileged. The admission of this testimony over defendant’s objection was prejudicial error.
To determine whether defendant’s statements made during his meeting with Lueck were privileged, a review of fundamental principles is in order. First, “The basic policy behind the attorney-client privilege is to promote the relationship between attorney and client by safeguarding the confidential disclosures of the client and the advice given by the attorney. This policy supports a liberal construction in favor of the exercise of the privilege.” (Benge v. Superior Court (1982) 131 Cal.App.3d 336, 344 [182 Cal.Rptr. 275].)
Second, Evidence Code section 951 defines a “client” under the attorney-client privilege as “a person who, directly or through an authorized representative, consults a lawyer for the purposes of retaining the lawyer or securing legal service or advice from him in his professional capacity *1230. . . (Italics added.) The section’s definition of client is thus, as Justice Kennard points out, two-pronged: a client is one who consults a lawyer either (1) for the purpose of retaining the lawyer, or (2) for the purpose of securing legal service and advice in the lawyer’s professional capacity.
The majority conveniently ignore this second prong of Evidence Code section 951. They therefore reason that the question whether there is an attorney-client privilege turns on Lueck’s refusal to be retained by defendant in his pending divorce action. Yet the existence of the privilege does not depend on whether an attorney accepts or refuses employment, but rather “hinges upon the client’s belief that he is consulting a lawyer in that capacity and his manifested intention to seek legal advice.” (1 McCormick on Evidence (4th ed. 1992) § 88, p. 322.) “[A]n attorney may render his services without charge if he pleases, and hence the mere circumstance that the advice is given gratuitously does not nullify the privilege.” (8 Wigmore, Évideñce (McNaughton ed. 1961) § 2302, p. 584, italics in original.) Even if defendant could not have reasonably believed that he was consulting an attorney for the purpose of retaining him, he could still have reasonably intended to consult with him for the purpose of securing legal advice from Lueck in the latter’s “professional capacity.” As the record reveals, such was in fact the case.
Although Lueck attempted to give his own self-justifying account of what happened between him and defendant, the facts of this case speak for themselves. According to the attorney’s own testimony at defendant’s bail hearing, his relationship with defendant was more one of business than of personal friendship. He referred some of his clients to defendant. As he stated: “It was the kind of relationship where favors are frequently traded.” Lueck strongly suggested in the bail hearing testimony that he was providing defendant with a free legal consultation in exchange for services defendant had previously rendered him. As he stated in reference to defendant’s request to meet with him on the occasion in question: “I didn’t feel imposed on at that point because there were many times that I had asked him for” help of an unspecified type.
Defendant called Lueck immediately after having been served with his divorce papers in the spring of 1987, some 18 months before the crimes with which defendant was charged occurred. Lueck agreed to come to defendant’s house, although he reiterated what he had made clear on a previous occasion—that he would not represent defendant in the divorce. He testified that once he arrived at defendant’s house, defendant “showed me the [divorce] papers and we had a discussion about it.” He read portions of these papers, particularly the declaration in support of his then-wife Aissa Wayne’s order to show cause. The declaration alleged that defendant had committed various *1231acts of violence against Wayne. Lueck asked defendant if the matters alleged in the declaration were true. Defendant replied, according to Lueck, that they were. Lueck advised defendant to obtain other counsel promptly. Defendant inquired whether a change of venue would be appropriate and Lueck replied that it would be. Defendant then made a number of inculpatory statements referred to by the majority about his ability to hire people to “take care of’ his wife and showed Lueck holes in the walls of his house that supposedly demonstrated his capacity for violence.
Several months later, Lueck represented defendant in an ex parte proceeding to expand his visitation rights with his daughter, for which he was paid $750. This was, of course, a variation of defendant’s conflict with his estranged wife.
The picture that emerges from this record is different from the one that Lueck, or the majority, would have us believe. As was pointed out in the Court of Appeal’s decision below, it is obvious that defendant did not call on Lueck because he needed a good friend in whom to confide: by Lueck’s own admission, he and defendant did not have that kind of close relationship. It is, rather, evident that from defendant’s perspective the predominant reason he asked Lueck to come to his house was to review, and to give advice on, the legal papers with which he had just been served. Above and beyond any of the specific questions defendant asked about change of venue and the like, he was plainly inquiring in an open-ended manner for Lueck’s opinion, as a lawyer, of those legal documents. And defendant had a reasonable expectation that the lawyer would render gratuitous legal advice, despite the latter’s refusal of employment, because their relationship “was the kind . . . where favors are frequently traded.”
The nature of the relationship between defendant and Lueck is further illuminated by the latter’s consent to represent defendant in an ex parte court appearance some four months later. Due to the absence of defendant’s regular attorney, and the urgent nature of his claim for expanded visitation rights in connection with his daughter’s baptism, he asked Lueck to substitute for his regular attorney. On this occasion, defendant called on the attorney to do more than engage in an informal consultation: Lueck drafted the necessary papers and made the ex parte appearance, for which he was paid. But their relationship at that time was fundamentally as it was on the prior occasion: defendant looked to Lueck for emergency legal assistance, and received it from him. Whether formally hired or not, it is clear that defendant viewed Lueck not as his regular counsel but as a lawyer to whom he could turn in times of crisis for legal service and advice.
This case is similar in many respects to People v. Fentress (1980) 103 Misc.2d 179 [425 N.Y.S.2d 485]. In that case the defendant, a high school *1232teacher, was a friend and former teacher of Schwartz, an attorney with a noncriminal practice. After graduating from law school, Schwartz gave his new business card to the defendant and told him to call at any time. The defendant eventually did call Schwartz, confessing to him that he had murdered someone and that he was contemplating suicide. Schwartz counseled the defendant against suicide. He suggested various persons who might also be able to help him, including a rabbi. He also told the defendant that the police should be called, and the defendant agreed. Eventually, the defendant phoned Schwartz’s mother, also a friend, who called the police. (Id. at pp. 489-490.) Schwartz did not represent the defendant in subsequent criminal proceedings.
The court, in assessing the defendant’s claim that his statements to Schwartz were protected by the attorney-client privilege, concluded the defendant had in fact consulted with Schwartz in the latter’s professional capacity as a lawyer. As the court explained: “Under any view, the defendant and . . . Schwartz were friends. And while there would be no privilege if . . . Schwartz was acting solely as a friend, abjuring professional involvement [citation], it may be inferred that the defendant communicated with . . . Schwartz because he was not only a friend but an attorney, from whom he was seeking support, advice and guidance. That. . . Schwartz was called upon to serve as psychologist, therapist, counselor, and friend does not derogate from his role as lawyer.” (425 N.Y.S.2d at p. 492.) The court also found that the defendant told the police on several occasions after being apprehended that Schwartz was his attorney, “indicative of his own subjective belief that he contacted his friend, . . . Schwartz, qua attorney.” (Ibid.) The court nonetheless found that the defendant in this instance did not intend to keep his communication to Schwartz about the crime confidential, as evidenced by the fact that he agreed to allow Schwartz to call the police. (Id. at pp. 493-494.)
In this case as in Fentress, defendant had good reason to believe that Lueck, although his friend, acted primarily as a lawyer whom he called for help and advice in a situation of emergency. Even more than in Fentress, the discussion here between defendant and attorney revolved around legal matters—the divorce papers with which defendant had been recently served. There was also less of a friendship and far more of a professional relationship here than in Fentress. And unlike in Fentress, nothing that defendant said during his meeting with Lueck or subsequently indicated that he intended any of his statements to be anything but confidential.
The cases cited by the majority for the proposition that no attorney-client privilege applies after an attorney declines employment are readily distinguishable. In State v. Hansen (1993) 122 Wn.2d 712 [862 P.2d 117, *1233121-122], the defendant called an attorney chosen from a list provided by the local lawyer referral service. A short way into their telephone conversation, the attorney made clear to the caller, a complete stranger, that he would be unable to take the case and that the defendant might want to seek another attorney with more experience in criminal law. After that communication, the defendant continued talking to the attorney and made a number of self-incriminating statements. The Washington Supreme Court held that the defendant had no reasonable basis for believing that an attorney-client relationship had been formed. (Id. at p. 121.) in the present case, unlike Hansen, the attendant circumstances gave defendant good reason to believe that his friend and business associate Lueck would render gratuitous legal advice, despite his refusal of formal employment; nothing that Lueck said or did disabused defendant of that well-founded belief.
The other cases cited by the majority involve situations in which the attorneys not only refused employment, but made clear that they represented a client or interest that was adverse to the parties attempting to assert the privilege. (See United States v. Dennis (2d Cir. 1988) 843 F.2d 652, 657; McGrede v. Rembert Nat. Bank (Tex.Civ.App. 1941) 147 S.W.2d 580, 584; Farley v. Peebles (1897) 50 Neb. 723 [70 N.W. 231, 233].) In such cases, it is surely unreasonable to believe that statements made to an attorney who represents a conflicting interest are protected by the attorney-client privilege. In this case, Lueck never claimed to be representing an adverse party and, as explained above, defendant reasonably believed that Lueck would function, and Lueck did in fact function, as his ad hoc legal consultant. He was therefore a “client” consulting with Lueck to “secure legal service or advice” within the meaning of Evidence Code section 951.
Nor do I agree with the concurring and dissenting opinion herein that Lueck’s role as legal adviser and as friend can or should be separated once it is established that an attorney-client relationship existed between them on the occasion in question. There is no basis either in precedent or policy for making such a separation. Indeed, an attorney is often called upon to listen to client communications that are not strictly law-related. As one commentary has stated: “It must often occur to the lawyer as he listens to his client’s problems that the client is less interested in legal redress than he is in purging himself emotionally by telling ‘his side of the story’ and using the lawyer as sounding board and general counselor. One could argue that these communications should not be protected by the attorney-client privilege because not made to a ‘professional legal adviser in his capacity as such.’ Frequently, however, client and lawyer would be unable to distinguish between personal and legal matters.” (Note, Functional Overlap Between the Lawyer and Other Professionals: Its Implications for the Privileged Communications Doctrine (1962) 71 Yale L.J. 1226, 1251.) This inextricable connection between the attorney’s role as legal adviser and his role as “sounding *1234board and general counselor” is nowhere more true than in the area of family law, the subject on which defendant consulted Lueck, where legal issues are often also deeply personal. (See Privileged Communications, supra, 71 Yale L.J. at p. 1252, fn. 175.)
For this reason, courts do not distinguish between privileged and nonprivileged communications between an attorney and a client made in the same consultation, except perhaps when it is manifest that the client intended certain communications to be nonconfidential, as when he or she makes the same or similar communications to a third party (see Solon v. Lichtenstein (1952) 39 Cal.2d 75, 80 [244 P.2d 907]), or when the statement falls within one of the statutory exceptions to the privilege (see Evid. Code, § 956). A crabbed view of the attorney-client privilege that would differentiate between privileged and nonprivileged statements according to whether the statements contained the requisite “legal content” would impossibly burden the free flow of communication between lawyer and client that the privilege is designed to promote. (See Benge v. Superior Court, supra, 131 Cal.App.3d at p. 344.) The fact that defendant consulted Lueck not only as a lawyer, but also as a sympathetic listener, does not allow us to gerrymander the attorney-client privilege to exclude from evidence defendant’s questions regarding the advisability of change of venue, but allow testimony of his outbursts of anger at his ex-wife.
In sum, the majority and the concurrence fail to recognize that the May or June 1987 meeting between Lueck and defendant was primarily a legal consultation, and that the statements made therein were protected by the attorney-client privilege, notwithstanding Lueck’s refusal to represent defendant or tire subsequent rationalization of his decision to testify against defendant. I conclude, therefore, that the trial court committed error in permitting Lueck to testify over defendant’s objection.
The error was unquestionably prejudicial. This was a close case, as illustrated by the fact that the first jury—which did not have the benefit of Lueck’s testimony—deadlocked. Lueck was the principal witness to testify to defendant’s intent to hire someone to commit violence against his ex-wife.1 Lueck’s testimony was central to the case, as evidenced by the prosecutor’s prolonged and repeated reference to it during closing argument. For example, he stated in his opening summation: “Why [Lueck’s testimony] is so important is this: There is an old French expression that says as a man thinks, so he is. In other words, you dwell on something long enough *1235whether it’s impure thoughts, whether it’s violence, whether it’s grandiosity, you’re going to eventually do it. . . . What does that say about Dr. Gionis? What does that say when a person starts making comments like that.... [A]n upset man, an angry man might say ‘God, I would like to get her or hate her.’ But how many people do you know would say I could hire somebody to do her? . . . [T]hat is very, very probative.”
The prosecutor continued: “[The statements to Lueck] occurred . . . right after the breakup [of defendant and Wayne], And sure it was a year and a half later that [the assault] occurred. But if you’re ever going to hear any statement of this man’s intent of what he is thinking, you’re going to hear it early on because as it gets closer, he’s going to be more tight-lipped .... But it just shows you what he is capable of, Ladies and Gentlemen, how he thinks of his wife and how it ties into this case. I am not suggesting for you to take this to show he’s a person of bad disposition, but that [it] is a unique, unique diabolic thought.”
The only other evidence introduced by the prosecution are phone calls and payments between defendant and Gal, who in turn was linked through numerous phone calls to Jeffrey Bouey and Jerrel Hintergardt, the perpetrators of the assault. Defendant argued that his communication and payments to Gal were in connection with legitimate surveillance activity. There was no evidence as to the content of these communications. There is no evidence that defendant ever communicated directly with Bouey and Hintergardt, and considerable room for doubt whether, even assuming that he indirectly hired these two, he intended the eventual violent result. Lueck’s testimony allowed the prosecutor to show that defendant did in fact contemplate hiring someone to commit violence against his wife, and the prosecutor emphasized at several points dining closing argument that the statements were highly probative. It is reasonably probable that but for Lueck’s testimony regarding defendant’s state of mind the second jury, like the first, would not have convicted defendant of the charged offenses. The error was therefore prejudicial. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243].)
Because the trial court prejudicially erred in admitting Lueck’s testimony over defendant’s objection, in contravention of the attorney-client privilege, I would uphold the Court of Appeal’s reversal of defendant’s conviction.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied July 13, 1995. Mosk, J., and Kennard, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

 It is not surprising that Attorney Lueck was willing to give defendant legal advice, even though defendant had not retained him. When asked why he agreed to defendant’s request that he examine defendant’s divorce papers, Lueck commented that he and defendant had “a business relationship . . . [with] an element of friendship in it. It was the kind of . . . relationship where favors are frequently traded.”

 In his dissenting opinion, Justice Mosk concludes that Attorney Lueck's role as defendant’s friend cannot be separated from his role in providing legal advice to defendant, and that because defendant sought legal advice from Lueck in a portion of their conversation, the entire conversation is therefore privileged. (Dis. opn., post, pp. 1233-1234.) I disagree. Although the policies underlying the attorney-client privilege support “a liberal construction in favor of the exercise of the privilege” (Benge v. Superior Court (1982) 131 Cal.App.3d 336, 344 [182 Cal.Rptr. 275]), I see nothing in the language of Evidence Code section 951 that would preclude the prosecution’s use of inculpatory statements a defendant made to a lawyer in portions of a conversation during which the defendant did not seek the lawyer’s professional advice.

 In his opening statement to the jury, defense counsel criticized the prosecutor because the prosecutor planned to call one of Wayne’s assailants, a “known liar,” to testify against defendant. The prosecutor did not call the assailant to testify, so in closing argument defense counsel criticized the prosecutor for not calling him. (I agree with the majority that the prosecutor was entitled to bring this inconsistency to the jury’s attention.)

 This is the full quotation: “Law enforcement officers have the obligation to convict the guilty and to make sure they do not convict the innocent. They must be dedicated to making the criminal trial a procedure for the ascertainment of the true facts surrounding the commission of the crime. To this extent, our so-called adversary system is not adversary at all, nor should it be. But defense counsel has no comparable obligation to ascertain or present the truth. Our system assigns him a different mission. He must be and is interested in preventing the conviction of the innocent, but. . . we also insist that he defend his client whether he is innocent or guilty. The State has the obligation to present the evidence. Defense counsel need present nothing, even if he knows what the truth is. He need not furnish any witness to the police, or reveal any confidences of his client, or furnish any other information to help the prosecution’s case. If he can confuse a witness, even a truthful one, or make him appear at a disadvantage, unsure or indecisive, that will be his normal course. Our interest in not convicting the innocent permits counsel to put the State to its proof, to put the State’s case in the worst possible light, regardless of what he thinks or knows to be the truth. Undoubtedly there are some limits which defense counsel must observe but more often than not, defense counsel will cross-examine a prosecution witness, and impeach him if he can, even if he thinks the witness is telling the truth, just as he will attempt to destroy a witness who he thinks is lying. In this respect, as part of our modified adversary system and as part of the duty imposed on the most honorable defense counsel, we countenance or require conduct which in many instances has little, if any, relation to the search for truth.” (388 U.S. at pp. 256-258 [18 L.Ed.2d at pp. 1174-1175], fns. omitted.)

 As I mentioned earlier, one of the quotations did explicitly state that lawyers have a duty to lie. Defendant, however, successfully objected to this quotation.

 The majority concludes that the prosecutor’s comments “did not imply that counsel was offering a dishonest defense.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 1217, fn. 13.) It is difficult to reconcile this conclusion with the language of the quotations set forth above, and the majority makes no attempt to do so.

 Defendant also argues that other comments by the prosecutor constituted misconduct. I agree with the majority that “most of the challenged remarks did not constitute misconduct, and those few comments that were improper did not prejudice defendant.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 1215.)

 Christine Foss, defendant’s former employee, also testified to similar statements defendant had made. But the prosecutor conceded in closing argument that Foss might be viewed by the jury as an unreliable and ineffective witness, and it was plain from the closing argument that the prosecutor depended considerably less on the testimony of Foss than that of Lueck.