Comments on: Learning How To Be A Lawyer Under Fire. Hitch A Ride On Someone Else’s Ego.

By: Weston

Weston — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:41:38 +0000

Re: True story #1

One of the most surprising things I have discovered in my 30 years of litigation experience is how bad many judges are at determining the quality of the lawyers before them. Your first story seems to fall into the trap that many young lawyers fall into of treating the judge almost as a god. I have found that an extremely substantial portion of judges determine the quality of a lawyer by the amount of aggravation they give that particular judge instead of the quality of their work and the results they obtain. I hope your clients took that judge’s opinion with a grain of salt.

By: Dan Reuter

Dan Reuter — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:24:27 +0000

New deputy prosecutor in a nameless Indiana county in his first week on the job: “What’s a caption?” He went on to a very successful career. True story.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:58:39 +0000

This is one of your best posts ever! I wish I could go back in time and read this 30 years ago when I was in law school. I’m pretty sure it would have changed the course of my life.

There are some very lucky law students out there today reading this!

By: Chris Hill

Chris Hill — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:46:41 +0000

Great thoughts as always Susan. While I didn’t start out solo out of law school, my time at the Virginia Attorney General’s Office was a learning experience as I was told, “there’s a file cabinet full of cases, now close them.” Fresh out of WashU law, I didn’t even know where the Courthouse was that I’d be using to close most of the cases! It was very much a “watch and learn” experience.