Paul Pfingst : Prosecutor in Peyer Trial Hired by a Top Law Firm

Paul Pfingst, the aggressive, red-haired prosecutor who persuaded 12 jurors to convict Craig Peyer of murder earlier this summer, announced Thursday that he is leaving the district attorney’s office to become a partner in one of San Diego’s oldest and largest law firms.

Pfingst, who has been a prosecutor for 12 years in New York and San Diego, said he is joining Higgs, Fletcher & Mack because he is eager to try a different type of legal work.

“I’m sad about leaving public service, which has been very fulfilling for me, but I’m enthusiastic about working with a new area of the law,” said Pfingst, 36. “I never wanted to be one who looked back at the end of his legal career and realized he had only done one thing.”

Pfingst, who begins his new job at 8 a.m. Monday, said he will specialize in major civil litigation with an emphasis on medical malpractice and product liability cases. He said he began contemplating a career move early this year but postponed a decision when he was assigned to handle Peyer’s second murder trial, which ended in the former CHP officer’s conviction in June.

“Higgs, Fletcher and I had been having discussions for some time, and I was clearly interested, but everything got put on hold because Peyer was more important,” said Pfingst, noting that he also considered an offer from at least one other law firm. “Once that wrapped up, I became free and it was a good time to move.”

A ‘Skilled Attorney’

Karen Winston, director of client relations for Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, called Pfingst a “very skilled attorney” and said the firm is happy to have him join it. She said the firm, which contacted Pfingst on the recommendation of another attorney, intended to hire him regardless of his success in prosecuting Peyer.

“Paul is a thorough trial attorney with a straightforward style,” the firm’s managing partner, Dan E. Hedin, said in a prepared statement. “We are pleased to welcome him into the firm.”

With 27 partners--including Pfingst--and a total of 73 attorneys, Higgs, Fletcher & Mack is the third-largest civil law firm in San Diego County, behind Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye and Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps. It was founded in 1939 by Dewitt (Dutch) Higgs and Ferdinand T. Fletcher and handles a broad range of major litigation.

Pfingst, who will become one of several former prosecutors in the law firm, declined to reveal his new salary. But he said it is higher than the $52,000 he was making annually as a deputy district attorney.

In interviews Thursday, Pfingst’s supervisors and colleagues said they lament the loss of a talented and entertaining team member but understand his desire to plow new turf. Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller called Pfingst “an outstanding trial attorney” and said the prosecutor will be “sorely missed.”

“I know that he’ll be as outstanding a success in private practice as he was as a prosecutor,” Miller said. “We really use Paul as a leading example of the model prosecutor.”

Miller added that, although he regrets losing Pfingst, he did not try to persuade him to stay on with the district attorney’s office.

“Everyone has their own career to think of,” Miller said, and he doesn’t believe in influencing such decisions. “Some of the attorneys who leave the office find afterward that they prefer being a prosecutor, even though the monetary rewards are not as great. It depends on what kind of a life you want.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joan Stein, who assisted Pfingst on the Peyer case, called her colleague “extremely hard-working, ethical beyond question, a superb lawyer and a very fair and fine person. . . . I’m very happy he has this new opportunity.”

Brian Michaels, chief deputy district attorney, predicted that, despite the career change, Pfingst will “retain his interest in the criminal justice system. He’s just that kind of person. I’m sure he’ll remain interested in serving the community,” Michaels said.

Others, however, suspected that Pfingst--who headed the homicide division in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office before moving to California four years ago--may find he misses the prosecutor’s life.

“In 1973, I left and went into private practice,” said Philip Walden, supervising deputy district attorney in the North County office, where Pfingst worked for more than three years. “I was back in ’75. I missed the work. I found I liked putting them in better than keeping them out.”

But Walden added that Pfingst’s move is a natural one because Pfingst and his wife of 10 months, Carlsbad lawyer Constance Shaner, are eager to start a family: “The bottom line is that public servants aren’t paid very well.”

Known for his quick wit and an accent that reveals his New York roots, Pfingst left the Brooklyn district attorney’s employ in 1984, after eight years in the busy office. In San Diego, he began his career in the North County office, where his first case had a distinctly California flavor.

“It was an avocado theft,” Pfingst recalled during an interview in May. “I called my friends in New York, and all their fears were confirmed. They figured my next case would involve surf crime.”

Things picked up quickly, however, when Pfingst was assigned to a six-defendant, capital murder case--the prosecution of Laura Troiani and five Marines for the murder of Troiani’s husband, Staff Sgt. Carlo Troiani.

From Troiani, one of the most notorious murder cases ever tried in North County, Pfingst segued to Peyer. After jurors in Peyer’s first trial failed to reach a verdict, Dist. Atty. Miller decided the case needed a fresh approach; he picked Pfingst for the job.

It was during the Peyer case, perhaps the most celebrated of its kind in San Diego history, that Pfingst really earned his local stripes. Observers praised the attorney’s astuteness in challenging aspects of the defense case that had sowed doubts in the minds of jurors sitting in Peyer’s first trial.

After the verdict, Miller heaped praise upon Pfingst, saying the bespectacled attorney with a tenacious courtroom style and his partner, Stein, “did not leave a stone unturned” in their pursuit of a conviction. The family of the victim, college student Cara Knott, echoed the glowing comments, as did community members who telephoned and sent letters to the district attorney.

Peyer, 38, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years to life in state prison.