Best — continued from Page 34
grace and compassion I can bring to bear, it feels like I get a little extra credit from those jurors. For example, jurors have come out of the box at the end of a
trial to hug me and say that I am a credit to women. I don’t know whether I am a credit to women, but I do know that it is striking for a person to say I am a credit
to women when all I did was do my job to the best of my ability. I believe that when the skeptical
jurors get past the “ugh, is she going to be any good at this” feeling, and they decide that you are good at trying a case even though you are a woman, they are capable of connecting deeply with you and your message. I believe that once the female trial lawyer has earned the jurors’ respect, jurors become willing to apply the descriptions at the beginning of this article to the woman lawyer standing before them. What does this mean? At least to me,
this means that we have to be all the things my focus group participants described us as being before our jurors will believe we merit the respect.
Becoming the best trial lawyer you can be
One of my mentors in life taught me
“The 7 P’s” – proper prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance. I went to Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College (“TLC”) and, among other lessons, Gerry teaches the same thing – the way to win is through diligent preparation. I have also read a saying under a picture of Einstein that says, “Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.” We all know this to be true – you have to work your ass off to be a good lawyer, and this is doubly true when it comes to being a good trial lawyer. How do any of us accomplish the
quality as attorneys that will lead jurors to conclude that we work twice as hard, are strong, smart, sharp, ferocious, aggressive, efficient, effective, driven to succeed, competitive, authoritative, assertive, outspoken, responsible, gutsy, compassionate, well-qualified and a badass? I think the answer is passion, effort, diligence and perseverance. In addition to working hard, I have
a few other suggestions. • Be the best, most authentic person you can be. Everyone says it, but it bears repeating and working on until we figure out what it means for each of us – be your- self. The genius of the trial process for
See Best, Page 38 36 — The Advocate Magazine FEBRUARY 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96