Building a practice on breath, blood

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Lauren Stuckert quickly learned that it can be best to face the biggest challenges early in a career.

“To become a breath- and blood-test expert your first year out of law school, when you don’t have much of a science background, was tough,” said Stuckert, a criminal defense attorney with a specialty in drunken driving law.

During the past three years, Stuckert, a member of the National College for DUI Defense, has gone to trial more than 60 times and faced 17 juries. Her first was just one week into her practice.

“It was challenging,” she said. “I put in a lot of hours and read the case law, read the statutes, read the books on the science. So, that was hard. But it just laid the foundation for my practice.”

And she’s built on that foundation with ongoing education about blood and breath analysis, including a hands-on, five-day course in Chicago.

“I was actually running samples through and seeing issues that can arise from that,” Stuckert said. “I obviously didn’t come out an expert on blood. But the more I try these cases, the more I can look at the blood and see the issues.

“I want people to learn it. We’re trying to raise the bar for defense attorneys in this area.”

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