Lawyer Mark Stephens stands by his comments that criminal action against Julian Assange is politically-motivated, but admits that if he had his time over again he may manage the Australian's case differently.
Two days out from a British court's decision on whether the WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to Sweden on sex assault allegations, the solicitor faced questioning over his subjective involvement in the high-profile case.
Mr Stephens has been vocal in and out of the courtroom throughout his representation of Assange, in December saying that the allegations against the 39-year-old were "politically motivated" following the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of secret US documents.
Should a lawyer ever adopt a client's position and use it as his own, and was it a mistake to label as politically-motivated the attempts to prosecute Assange? BBC Radio 4 asked Mr Stephens on Tuesday.
"It's not necessarily a mistake," Mr Stephens replied.
"... there's a number of factors that are and were unique in the Assange case - you have a number of state actors putting out serious disinformation and downright false information and I think they had to be called on that and that was within my personal knowledge to say I knew about these things and I think there is also a situation where there was a lot of spin going on and I think it was important, particularly when Julian was in jail, that through me his voice could articulate the position points he wanted to make."
Ideally lawyers should remain "neutral", Mr Stephens added, attributing their opinions and comments to clients.
"One always tries to put that professional distance in," he said.
"I accept that on occasion during Assange I had, I think in one week, just 12 hours sleep and that I slipped on I think one or two occasions and that happens and that's part of the joy ... of representing someone who's high profile, but it's also part of the problems that go with it.
"And I think for people who are going to speak on behalf of their clients, you need to understand where the professional lines are and also try not to cross them.
"We will make mistakes. Doing things live from the court steps is not a perfect science and obviously we make mistakes.
"If I had my time again there may be things I would have done differently, but not many."
Mr Stephens and Assange return to London's Belmarsh court on Thursday to hear a judge's decision on a Swedish extradition application.
Both prosecutors and Assange can choose to appeal the decision.
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