I Was a Georgia Prosecutor for 7 Years — Then Switched Sides To Become A Criminal Defense Attorney | Noah Pines
September 2, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readNoah Pines spent seven years as a Georgia prosecutor before switching sides to become a criminal defense attorney. He has since helped overturn decades-old wrongful convictions. In this conversation, he explains what he saw from both chairs, why he believes most lawyers are too extreme, and what actually determines whether a case ends fairly.
The Prosecutor’s Mindset: Discretion and the Danger of Tunnel Vision
Pines started as a prosecutor handling misdemeanors, then moved to felonies—mostly child abuse and child homicide cases. He says the prosecutor has enormous control: no client to answer to, the power to dismiss cases, and the ability to decide what sentence to pursue. In his view, a prosecutor who is not dismissing about 25% of incoming cases is not doing the job properly. He routinely dismissed cases where a teenager gave a false name out of fear, if there was no prior record. “Does this 17-year-old kid who just got scared and gave a false name really need a conviction on the record?” he would ask.
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What you'll learn
- 1 Timestamped Outline
- 2 (02:07) **Introduction to Noah Pines** - Former Georgia prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney who fights wrongful convictions
- 3 (02:23) **Early Life and Path to Law** - Growing up outside Philadelphia and the accidental journey into becoming a lawyer
- 4 (05:28) **Discovering Trial Law** - An introvert finds his calling through internships and a mentor's offhand comment
- 5 (07:41) **What Trial Work Actually Feels Like** - The physical and mental endurance required in the courtroom
- 6 (10:11) **The Prosecutor's Mindset** - Why Noah dismissed 25% of cases and the power of prosecutorial discretion
- 7 (14:06) **Declining Standards in Policing and Prosecution** - How the system has changed over 32 years
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Noah Pines spent seven years as a prosecutor in Georgia — weighing sentences, navigating cases, trying to be a fair voice inside a system that does not always reward fairness — before leaving to become a criminal defense attorney and discovering what the justice system looks like from the other side of the courtroom. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what being a Georgia prosecutor really required of him, why he left after seven years to defend the people he used to prosecute, what working Innocence Project cases and overturning twenty year wrongful conviction sentences actually involved, what the current problems with prosecutors in America actually look like from someone who spent seven years inside that world, and what representing people accused of the worst crimes available actually requires of the attorney who takes those cases.
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#lawyer #criminallaw #prosecutor #truecrimepodcast
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Thank you to CASH APP for sponsoring this episode:
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Connect with Noah Pines:
https://www.rossandpines.com/attorneys/noah-h-pines/
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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:
https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction: Guilty People Walk 00:13 Meet Noah Pines: From Prosecutor to Defense 00:35 Growing Up Outside Philadelphia 00:56 Childhood and Family Influence 01:42 Parents' Careers and Early Law Exposure 02:32 Deciding to Go to Law School 03:39 Internships and Discovering Trial Law 05:20 What Makes a Good Trial Lawyer 06:44 The Physical Toll of Trials 08:11 Choosing to Become a Prosecutor 09:14 Prosecutorial Discretion and Dismissals 10:27 How Cases Reach Prosecutors 11:27 Arrests Without Charges and Records 12:06 Declining Police Investigations 13:07 Why Police Don't Investigate Anymor
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