I love being a DA, but sometimes wish I could help friends

I love being a Deputy District Attorney.  The job is fun.  I spend alot of time in court.  I get to litigate everything, including doing jury trials and motions.  I've also been successful as a DA.  But in this job, I have a number of restrictions on what I can do.  For instance, I cannot represent other people while I'm a DA.  At all times, I represent "The People of the State of California" and I do so on behalf of the elected DA.

There are some days where I wish that I was in private practice.  Not because of my job.  I love my job.  It's because so many friends call me with legal problems.  I'm happy they call me.  I became a lawyer so that I could help people with legal problems.  But in most cases, I'm not able to help the people that call me because I'm not allowed to do any outside legal work.

In general, the rule makes sense.  I can understand why it might be a bad idea if a DA was able to take cases freely.  But there are days where I really want to be able to help other people out.

Just in the last week, several people have called me with legal troubles.

1. An old friend called about her younger brother (a juvenile) being arrested and wanted to know what to do.
2. My mother moved into an apartment where the landlord regulary enters the apartment illegally to snoop around.
3. A close friend (actually, someone who helped raise me) was arrested for homicide when he dropped his baby son in the bathtub and his baby later died.
4. The brother of another close friend (another person who helped raise me) was arrested and my friend wanted advice on whether the plea deal was good and if his brother should take it.
5. The brother of the wife of another close friend (another person who raised me) called me because he is being told he has to pay restitution on a case that he dealt with almost 15 years ago.
6. Another friend, someone I grew up with, recently emailed me for advice forming an LLC for his sucessful consulting business.
7. The same friend from above previously contacted me about properly terminating a poorly drafted contract he had entered into with another person.
8. The parents of a good friend asked me for advice regarding a potential property line dispute they are having with their next door neighbor.  
9. A good friend of mine was recently arrested for DUI.

These are just the issues that I can think of off the top of my head.  I'm sure I could find more if I looked through my email and spent more time thinking.  For now, I'm sticking to being the best district attorney I can be (and thus, giving friends vague general guidance or a referral).  But at least I know I would have a couple of clients if I ever were to go private.