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Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers

Rule 20   Commit to Being an Excellent Trial Lawyer. Don't Do Anything by Halves. If You Can't Dedicate Yourself to This, Move Over and Do Something Else.
 

By Keith Evans The Author Reviews Sample Sections Details Formats Hardbound  $19.95 Softcover    $19.95 Ebook        $4.95

If you do commit to it, if you honestly admit to yourself that this is what you want to do and do really well, then the chances are high you'll turn out to be really good. All the other practical rules of persuasion and advocacy are subordinate to this one.

You all have law degrees: you all passed the bar exam. By definition, you are some of the most intelligent people in society. If you really and truly dedicate yourself to becoming a first-class trial lawyer, it is almost certain you will succeed. If you don't do this, you will never be better than second-rate.

I don't need to say much more about this practical rule of wholehearted commitment. But I do have two comments on it, observations that may be less obvious to Americans than to those who have also practiced in other countries.

First is this fact. In the United States, you have a body of literature devoted to advocacy, and trial work generally, that is unique in the world of law. No other country even begins to compare. There are practice books here which spell out, line by line, how to pick a jury, how to cross-examine experts, how to frame objections. They give you the actual words to use. Then there are tapes for your car, videos for your home, all designed to show you how to do it. Don't, I beg of you, ignore this gold mine. Get into the habit of browsing in these books, sampling these tapes. Advocacy is far more than a trade, a craft, an art. It can become a way of life. Try to read just a little about advocacy every day. A paragraph is enough: just read something every day.

But beware of one thing. Don't become the slave to anything you read. You will find bad advice as well as good out there, and you'll learn as much from identifying the bad as you will from recognizing and adopting the good. If you take in and keep thinking about the principles discussed in this book, and bear them in mind as you go prospecting in this rich American gold mine, you'll know gold when you find it. Be critical. And remember that you don't need to imitate anybody. Set out to be your own kind of advocate. Don't be afraid of being individual. Read as widely as you can, but remember that you are uniquely you. Know the rules, understand why they are important, then do it your way.

And the second observation I want to make is this. If commitment to advocacy generally is vitally important, so is commitment to the individual case. And America is unique in this regard as well. The quality of preparation that goes into a case here is more intensive and more thorough than anywhere else in the world. Sure, there are exceptions, but as an overall American pattern, quality preparation is the rule.

The system here provides the opportunity for intensive preparation--far more so than is generally the case in England and the other common-law countries. In England, preparation can quite literally be a matter of reading your papers on the way to court, and there's a joke at the Old Bailey that defending barristers often don't know what the trial is about until they hear the prosecutor's opening. Like all jokes about lawyers, it's got some truth in it.

But in America, even if the case is assigned by the court, proper provision is almost always made for preparation. It will almost always be paid for. And because the opportunity for preparation is available to you, you have a duty to prepare intensively.

Prepare, and the rewards are guaranteed. You may not win your case, but you will impress your judge and jury from first to last. Nothing comes across more clearly. Obvious preparation, leading to a meticulous knowledge of the case, shines all the way through and always commands respect. Judges, asked what is the single most important thing about advocacy, say, again and again, "preparation." It's the best investment of them all. There's no substitute for preparation, and lack of it is always found out.

If I am beginning to sound like a revivalist preacher, forgive me. But this is a passionately important message. All American liberties depend on the courts, and without a continuous supply of first-class advocates these astonishing liberties, which are so much taken for granted, are at risk. You are the generation whose skills are going to protect those liberties: this is your duty and privilege. It is your commitment.

Let me bring you back to the concept of the courtroom as theater.

Focus on the courtroom as theater and a handful of practical rules leap out at you. Let's look at what they are, let's examine some obvious buzzwords. What should theater be? What does it involve?

Entertainment. Drama. A good storyline. Profound attentiveness from the audience. Applause. A sense that the whole thing was worthwhile doing, worthwhile having gone to. Good theater is satisfying, moving, memorable. In good theater time never drags, the development of the play never flags, the audience never gets bored.

That's enough. There are enough ideas there. Let's take these out of the theater and across to the courtroom and see how our practical rules appear.

One thing is blindingly obvious, isn't it? In the law court your audience can't get up and leave.

They are in the truest sense captive. They aren't free to hiss and boo you off the stage. They are obliged to sit there, and this means that two things have to be borne in mind.

First: Although they are obliged to sit there, they are not obliged to listen to you.

Second: Since you have a captive audience, you owe it to them to make the trial as entertaining as you possibly can.

If you do make it entertaining, they'll listen to you. If you don't, the listening they do will be done out of a sense of duty: it won't be intent listening and it won't be sympathetic to you or your case.
 

Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers
By Keith Evans

Hardbound, $19.95 Hardbound: 264 pages  ISBN 10: 1587330059 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-005-6 LCCN:  2003113147 OCLC: 56315474 Published 2004 Dimensions: 7.25 x 7.8 x 0.8 Weight: 1.2 pounds Plus shipping and handling (8% of order, $10 minimum). Discount for bookstores and classroom use. VA sales tax added when shipped to VA address.  Ships within 1 business day Special!  With each paid order of 25 copies or more the hardbound edition, you'll receive one free copy signed by the author, while supply lasts. Publication descriptions and Order form (17-page PDF)

Softcover, $19.95 Softcover: 194 pages  ISBN 10: 158733-185-3 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-185-5 Published 2010 Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.1 x 0.6 Weight: 0.7 pounds Buy softcover from Amazon (opens in new window) Buy softcover from Barnes & Noble (opens in new window)

Also see

• Legal Spectator & More, by Jacob Stein

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