When I first decided I wanted to become an attorney, I did not think about being in trial. Even in law school, I gave little thought about what it would mean to be in trial. Like a lot of people, my experience with being in trial was watching it on tv shows. The original Law & Order was always my favorite. Through my years of practicing law, I have learned that television does not match reality.

Trials are fun, exhausting, nerve-wracking experiences. No matter how much you prepare before the first day of trial, there are always twists and turns, but not the type of twists and turns you see on Perry Mason, where Mr. Mason always gets a witness to dramatically admit to the crime. The real twists and turns come from the mundane—the court’s changes in scheduling or technology issues—to the more unusual—a judge who makes a comment that can be perceived as biased or a juror who has an emergency and is unable to finish the trial. No matter how much you prepare before the start of trial, you are never fully prepared.

Trials are stressful. During trial, you have to make sure that you are selecting jurors who will follow the law, who will see your corporate client as more than a corporation, and who are not afraid to award an allegedly injured person no compensation. You also have to make sure that you are presenting the documentary evidence and witness testimony in a way that is easy for the jury to follow and understand. In trial, you have to connect with the jury without being fake. A trial is your only opportunity to present all of the evidence and make your arguments to defend your client. You do not get a second chance, and that is stressful.

Trials are about presentation, which is what you see in the television shows. Deciding what to wear every day, especially as a woman, is a major part of the presentation. Most attorneys do not have Cher’s computer program from Clueless to help choose their outfit. Attorneys have to make sure they look professional and relatable, yet are still comfortable. Choosing your suits for trial can impact how a juror perceives you, and that can affect the outcome of your case. Jurors examine and absorb everything that happens in the courtroom.

Trials are time-consuming. In trial, an attorney has a full day of trial, then they must recap the day’s testimony, continuously incorporate the day’s work into ongoing drafts of closing argument, and prepare for the next day’s witnesses. The reality of trial is that it requires much more time than that spent in the courtroom, which is usually the only part you see on TV. Trial is about the weeks—or, for really big cases, the months—of trial preparation, the late nights away from normal routine and family, and the stress.

In spite of this, trials are fun. It’s fun to see your hard work on a case come to life, to see how the questions you asked of the plaintiff during his deposition enabled you to discredit his claims when he takes the witness stand. It’s fun to be in the courtroom in front of a jury, especially because it doesn’t happen that often.[1] It’s fun to match wits with plaintiff’s counsel. There is a level of gamesmanship that happens during a trial—knowing when to object, knowing when to allow silence, when to let the jury analyze what they just heard, and when to press a witness without coming off as a jerk. You won’t learn that in school or from a book. There are some parts of being in trial that you can only learn from being in trial.

Trial is not just what is presented in front of the jury. Trial is mostly what happens outside the courtroom, and that is the reality I did not know before I became a trial lawyer.

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Sources

[1] Approximately 87 percent of tort cases settle. Eisenberg, Theodore and Lanvers, Charlotte, “What is the Settlement Rate and Why Should We Care?” (2009). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 203. http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/203