I like reading your blog ...says the defense lawyer

Photo:  At a break in the deposition, eating a sumo orange (highly recommend these).  Ipad has joined laptop - they are a good team.  N in the background. 

We are in deposition yet again on this case.  Have lost count of how many there have been.  Thirty, forty, something like that.

Have spent so much time together, we're kind of like a team.  Even though we are all on different sides.  There's the gracious court reporter who always has cookies ready for us.  Even at 9:00 in the morning.  N - my biggest sparring partner. B who passes notes to N but otherwise doesn't speak.  W who sometimes chimes in at the end.  C isn't with us today.  P comes in her stead.

He says hello and that he really enjoys reading my blog.  He has a twinkle in his eye.  Younger.  Not jaded.  Get a good vibe from him.

This blog in fact drives many plaintiff lawyers absolutely nuts.  The fact that plaintiff lawyers write books of strategy - drives many plaintiff lawyers absolutely nuts.  WHAT IF THE OTHER SIDE GETS A HOLD OF THIS!

Have we given away key secrets.  Have we provided ammunition they can use against us.

Hmmm.  Let's think about this.  Did we all go to college.  Did we all (or most of us) go to law school.  Did we take the bar.   What makes any of us think that we have "the inside scoop on how to be better" than the other side.  We are all lawyers.  Hello!

Most of our techniques have been around for centuries.  Remember Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, oh - and Sun Tse.  We just repackage them.

Rick Friedman told me a long time ago when he just published the Rules book, that he didn't care if defense lawyers read it.  The reason - because it was the truth.  It worked if you were on the right side.

When I was a defense lawyer, usually the defendant did something wrong.  My job was to limit the exposure of the insurance company.  To keep damages down.  Or to try to get the case dismissed on technicalities.  The worst cases involved clergy sex abuse.  I didn't do too much of that but enough to know that it was creepy and gross.  We used to argue (and win) that the rape did not occur "in the course and scope" of the clergy's employment with the church and therefore the church was not responsible.  I had to distance myself.  Make it a totally intellectual exercise.  So that I could not feel any compassion for the victim.  Stone faced.  Stone hearted.  The law has changed now thank heavens.   And so have I.  Who was I... But I digress.

The cool thing about being a plaintiff lawyer is I get to represent people whom I care about and whose causes I completely believe in.

So if defense lawyers want to read this blog, super duper.  Hope they enjoy it.   If they read it solely to try to understand and predict my behavior....well, good luck on that ;)