The GRIND of a trial attorney
Strategy and eff yous abound
The best trial lawyers are comfortable being naked. Speaking in the well of the court (aka center stage) is scary. I’ve been a professional speaker for multiple decades and still get butterflies prior to trial. I just try to get the butterflies going in the right direction.
Preparing for a trial is a GRIND. You are on your feet for hours. Sometimes you have a second chair to help; other times it is just you. You, the Judge, Opposing counsel, and occasionally twelve jurors. Every move is calculated, every decision thought steps ahead - or you react and deal with whatever the hell you just did.
The prep is tough. You have to juggle your normal court call and those demands with preparing for every scenario a Judge, Opposing counsel, AND a jury might throw at you. Yes, juries throw curve balls. Sometimes those are the worst BECAUSE they do not know the law. It is similar to BJJ where to fight a new white belt. You know more jiu-jitsu, but they just DO stuff. They do stuff that’s not BJJ. That is a jury. They will ask questions that strattle the bounds of legal and what the fuck.
Court calls are demanding. Every day you have to know enough about 10-30 cases to talk intelligently about them. Lawyers are generally incompetent so intelligently is a low bar. You still have to know a few things - posture of the case (where is it?), the offer (is there one?), status of discovery (did the reports and video come in yet?) It is juggling plates while public speaking for 4-6 hours a day.
THEN, when you actually get office time…you have to trial prep. You have your checklists:
do I have all reports?
did I turn over all reports?
what about the rest of the evidence? It is labeled?
Time to watch 4 hours of body cam again…
Did I MISS something?
Can I get the evidence in? What evidence do I need?
What will the objections be?
Do I have participatory witnesses? Were they served? Do they know to be here?
I need to meet with the witnesses.
There’s much more but the above is going through one’s head in the days leading up to trial. Add in the opening, closing, questions for witnesses….it’s a thing.
Do I love being a trial attorney? Yes. Will I do it forever? No. Once I step out, I’m out. You have to love the grind, the lack of sleep, the rush of the chess match.
When you hire a lawyer, hire a trial attorney. Make sure they have done a recent (within a year) trial. Trial attorneys are wolves; former trial attorneys are dogs. Always go wolf.
Have you studied body language? I feel like judges and attorneys would be experts.