When San Francisco defense attorney Ira Barg recently took a right cross to the eye thrown by a client and crumpled to the courtroom floor, Deputy Public Defender Daro Inouye stepped in to help him. Well, sort of.

So Barg sought court permission to make Inouye his permanent go-between, assigning the PD the task of separating him from his fist-flinging clients. Well, kind of.