Continuing Legal Education Today

My top ten CLE speaking tips to help you be a hit with the audience

Faith Pincus — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:47:48 -0800

It's been a while, I know! I am trying to get the hang of this whole blogging thing and have lots of ideas for the future.

And while the post below might not start any hot conversation, it will hopefully help a few speakers do a better job, and help a few CLE attendees enjoy a program more (if the speakers do a better job! :-) ).

So for right now, below is list of my top ten CLE speaking tips that I just emailed a bunch of my speakers who are teaching at my Federal Court Boot Camp in Chicago this friday (sold out!). I thought I would share it here as well, since it is something I send out to the attorneys and judges who speak at my CLE programs.

Here are my top ten CLE public speaking tips to help you be a hit with the audience:

1) Spend the 20 – 30 minutes before your program starts mingling with the audience members (instead of sitting on the dias).

Introduce yourself to at least 10 different people (more if possible).
Get their names. Jot their names down if you can on a note pad/seating chart, so you can remember during the program and mention them by name (or call on them by name).
Find out why they are there and about what they hope to learn. I usually ask, literally, “so.. .why are you here?... what are one or two things you would really like to learn about in this program.”
Why do all this? It helps make you more approachable, will endear you to the audience, will give you a small representative idea of what some folks want to hear about, and if you are a practitioner, it is an excellent networking tool (even if they are associates) with people who may, down the road, refer you business. Remember, some of these folks will also be experienced practitioners who are just new to federal court.

2) Don’t read off your outline. Use your speaking outline to prompt your memory about what you wish to teach (have keywords/phrases about your teaching topics).

Make sure you are prepared re: what you wish to teach, i.e. have multiple points and stories/examples written in your outline to cover re: each subject matter/topic, as appropriate.

3) If you are going to cite a case for any reason, cite it slowly and repeat it. If you plan to cite more than one case and they are not in the outline, please bring enough copies of a case cite list to handout to everyone, so they have the resource and don’t have to rely on getting it down properly (think of them as court reporters).

4) Try to know your stories/examples in advance – it is always hard to come up with them on the fly when speaking in public. Stories and examples are great teaching techniques, as are metaphors. Just make sure your stories are not super lengthy.

5) Don’t let any one audience member hijack the program with questions that are off topic, too detailed/particular to their case, or too many questions about a particular case.

The best way to handle this as soon as it starts is to tell them some version of the following, “It looks like you have a lot of questions about a particular issue/case, or it looks like you know a lot about this specific issue, can you write down your questions and see me on the break? I’d really like to discuss this further with you, but we need to move on right now. Thanks!”

And of course, answer their questions at the break of possible and if not, get their email to answer them later.

6) Make sure you either repeat your audience member's questions, or they use the audience microphone.

7) Try to stay on time - we have an ambitious agenda!

8) Despite #6 above, give them details/specific information, tips, advice whenever you can. They typically don’t like broad brush generalities.

9) Meet their needs – you know generally why they are here based on our topics, and more specifically if you do # 1 above, so make sure your goal is to meet their needs and answer the question, “what’s in it for me” that is on all their minds.

10) Smile and have fun! Believe it or not, many of these programs can be a lot of fun if you interact with your audience (hence knowing some of their names, as discussed in #1 above) and let your own spontaneous humor flow – or tell humorous stories. And that helps lighten things up and make it more interesting!

Top Tips Part II: Improving your Oral Argument

Faith Pincus — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:33:13 -0800

Here are a few more tips from my interviews and conversations with judges, as well as from our programs:

Don't just grab that brief that your (or someone else) wrote and filed months ago and skim it before going in to court. Study the facts and the cases like you're going to be taking a test on them.

That way you can respond to questions about anything in the brief, not just what you thought was important.

Create a one page cheat sheet with issue, case cite, holding and page in brief

This allows you to respond to questions quickly, competently and professionally without having to search for cases in your brief while your judge(s) wait for you.

Practice, Practice, Practice

A summary judgement motion is just as important as trial. Practice your argument, have someone moot you, be prepared. A frequent complaint hear from judges is about attorneys who come in and wing it off their briefs.

And for a great short read about the other side of the coin, see "Five Oral Argument Tips - For Judges" on Howard Bashman's How Appealing.law Blog by the Hon. Michael W. Mosman,U.S. District Judge, District of Oregon on how judges could behave better when hearing oral arguments.

My Shingle on Passion - passing it along

Faith Pincus — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:26:29 -0800

Just a quick entry to say check out Carolyn Elefant's post on passion and enjoying yourself.

Gave me a nice lift today as I find myself distracted by the (at last!) fabulous So. Cal. weather and wanting to take one of the dogs to the beach instead of working on work.

Go Carolyn and thanks for the boost!

How to ensure you aren't invited to speak again at an event

Faith Pincus — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:51:22 -0800

In the spirit of David Letterman's Top Ten... here are the top10 ways to ensure you are not invited back to speak at an event:

10. Spend the entire time you are on the panel eating snacks.

9. Interrupt the other speakers and monopolize the program (when on a panel).

8. Spend so much time reminiscing with your war stories you don't cover all, or even most, of your topics.

7. Come unprepared and wing it.

6. Bow out of an event after committing to the program, without providing a replacement speaker of equal credentials and quality.

5. Present a canned Power Point that you use all the time, but doesnt really fit your topic.

4. Arrive at the event a few minutes before you present with a Power Point presentation without having made any Power Point arrangements in advance.

3. Read your outline or Power Point to the audience.

2. Present on a topic other than what was agreed upon.

And the number one way......

1. Show up late.

Top Tips Part I: Improving your Oral Argument

Faith Pincus — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:22:57 -0800

This is the first in a series of Top Tip posts I’ll be making on litigation and presentation skills, culled from Pincus Professional Education CLE programs by judges, staff attorneys and practitioners, as well as the public speaking and oral argument courses I teach.

Improving your Oral Argument, Part I:

Presentation skills are critical to the success of any attorney. We need to be good at presenting in the board room, the court room, the office and even in the community, because that is what the job demands.

And, the better one is at public speaking, in any context, the more that person is perceived as an expert and a leader and the more that person advances in her or his career.

Below are five quick tips to improve your public speaking skills in the court room – but I could go on forever, and will provide more later on. These tips come straight from judges and court staff attorneys.

Find out who your audience is and meet their needs: in this case – the judge(s) or Justice(s)

Make sure your presentation is right for your audience – your trial or appellate judge. Who is the judge and what is her or his (or their) approach on the bench? Should you expect a lot of questions, a quiet judge, a hot panel? Instead of approaching the argument from your perspective, approach it from theirs.

How do you do this?

• ask around;

• most importantly, take the time to go see your judge(s) / justice(s) in action, on multiple days;

• think you don’t have time for a and b above?

You really do, you just have to give something else up – one less lunch, one less day at the gym, or a few less billable hours that month … whatever it is you have to give up, it is worth it to not be surprised the day of your argument.

And you will be amazed at how much you learn just by watching other attorneys do well, or not so well.

For a quick post on finding out more about your judge, regardless of where the court is located, see "Well, You’re Better Than You Look.” by Eileen Burkhalter Smith on the Young Lawyers Blog for more ideas on this topic.

Organize, Organize, Organize

One of the biggest problems attorneys have when presenting is being disorganized. That includes trying to cover too much.

In an oral argument, you have time to cover, at most, 3 important issues. Pick your top three issues, and practice arguing them in any order possible.

For an excellent, detailed post on the how to organize, the judge's perspective, and what to expect, see Andrew Frey's article, "Preparing and Delivering Oral Argument" on Mayer Brown's Appellate Net site.

Don’t read your brief or your presentation.

First rule of oral argument: never read your brief. Assume the judge and her lawclerks have read it.

Second rule, don’t write your presentation out word for word and read it. I know some of you love to do this, but it is a habit you have to learn to drop.

Oral argument is your opportunity to have a conversation with your judge(s).

It’s one of the most exciting, rewarding parts of litigating (really!). This is your chance to engage on an intellectual level with your judge and it’s their chance to get their questions answered (see #4 below) and learn what they need to learn to decide the case.

None of that happens if you read a presentation. On top of that, it really annoys judges.

I once heard a 20+ year career staff attorney for an appellate court describe oral argument this way:

“the most effective advocate imagines he or she is a law clerk in chambers explaining why a judge should go a certain way. They are not argumentative; instead, they focus on having a conversation about why judge should make the desired ruling.”

Many courts provide tips on their website and also post post oral arguments for you to learn from. For example check out the Florida Supreme Court's information, "Information about Oral Arguments."

Answer the question.

I watch attorneys make this mistake all the time. And it is probably the #1 complaint I get from judges, justices and law clerks.

When your judge/justice asks you a question, think of it as a red flag waving in front of you – this is what they are interested in and want to know more about. Stop. Listen. Listen to the whole question – don’t answer it in your head while they are still asking. Take a moment to compose your answer (they will respect that), and then answer it concisely and directly.

And if you don’t know the answer, admit it, and offer to provide a written answer by brief supplement the following morning. Don’t fake it – they can smell that a mile away.

Don’t argue with opposing counsel.

This tends to happen a lot at the trial level. Despite what you see on TV, attorneys arguing with each other in court during oral argument is a big no-no. Why? It doesn't’t accomplish any of your goals and it hampers your credibility (see my first post about "Attorney Credibility" on this blog):

• First, the other attorney is not’t your audience;

• Second, you’re not engaging with your judge or answering his or her questions;

• Third, you can’t make a record by arguing with opposing counsel;

• And finally, Judges find it worse than annoying – they think it is stupid.

Remember – public speaking and oral argument are an acquired art. Not everyone is a natural born speaker, but everyone can improve by learning how to do it better.

Oh, and don't forget to make sure your travel plans allow you to show up on time. In her post: "My Young Lawyer Experience: “That’ll be $50!” Eileen Burkhalter Smith writes about when she got fined by the court for showing up late for an argument.

Mobile Technology for Lawyers

Faith Pincus — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:14:31 -0800

It’s time to update my mobile technology, so I decided to read a few posts on the latest options. I recommend this post by Ryan McKeen and Finis Price at the ABA Law Journal comparing the Droid v. the IPhone.

That does it, I’m getting a droid!

Lawyerist has a quick post about how an attorney can put an IPad to use. I'm not convinced it's enough reason to buy one, but he has a few good ideas.

On the other hand, the ABA is talking about publishing an interactive version of my upcoming public speaking for attorneys book in a IPad platform - complete with links to video and audio samples of public speaking and oral argument do's and dont's. If a lot of publishers go that route with their books, it makes the IPad a lot more interesting.

Motion to compel lunch granted: why opposing counsel should cooperate

Faith Pincus — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:14:50 -0800

I just found this great post by Vicky Pynchon, at her www.negotiationlawblog.com blog on a judge who ordered counsel to have lunch (with thanks to Roger Wood, at Association Law Blog).

The judge's tongue in cheek order shows a great sense of humor. It also cleverly demonstrates just how ridiculous judges belive attorneys are when they behave like idiots.

This one goes in my "it's about your credibility column." The attorneys involved will never live this one down.

Are lawyers of a Certain (or any) Age using social networking yet?

Faith Pincus — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:13:04 -0800

Just last week a speaker at the American Continuing Legal Education Association's mid-year conference in Orlando stated that he thought attorneys over a "Certain Age" (capitals intended!) were not using social networking as a means of communication, networking or finding out about legal community events, such as continuing legal education programs.

What? Are you kidding me?

OK, I'm thinking to myself, I'm probably on the (much) lower end of his Certain Age scale (if I'm on it at all) so I probably don't count. So, just for fun, I took a casual poll (a very scientific casual poll, I promise) of my attorney friends via Twitter and Facebook and, go figure, they disagreed.

I know, skewed poll, they're using social networking.

Need to poll folks the old fashioned way, by email. But still, many of my friends who pipped up said they were of a Certain Age and they couldn't imagine business or personal life without social networking.

Where am I going with this?

On Friday Larry Bodine, of Law Marketing Blog, wrote in his blog about a Hubbard One survey of Managing Partners and General Counsel, announced at a Managing Partner Forum in Florida, and guess what they found? Yep, law firms, and attorneys, are not strangers to social networking:

Facebook Today

•          Firm Page

–      35% of top 20 American law firms have FB page

•          Firm Employee Groups

–      40% of top 20 American law firms have FB groups

–      60% of top 20 Fortune 500 firms have FB groups

•          Individual Profiles/Pages

–      0% of top 10 GC’s, 10 Managing Partners have public FB profiles

Unfortunately, no demographics are discussed, so it doesn't really prove or disprove the Certain Age theory. But it's an interesting enough survey to bear repeating.

What was most interesting was that Attorneys in law firms use LinkedIn far far more than General Counsel at corporations. I suppose the logical answer is that firm attorneys are more into networking, the means of getting new business. But still... is that all?

Based on the results, I'd say Facebook may rock the legal world, but Twitter has not yet made much of an impression, at least on General Counsel. Well, no kidding. If they're not checking linkedIn - an easy platform to figure out - they're certainly not going to tweet. Heck, I can barely keep up with Twitter!

Twitter Today

·         Clients tweeting? 0 of top 20 Fortune 500 General Counsels are tweeting

·         Law firm leaders tweeting? 0 of top 20 AmLaw Managing Partners are tweeting

·         Law firms tweeting? 5 of top 20 AmLaw firms are tweeting

Not surprisingly, blogs, have made significant inroads into the legal community:

Blogs Today

• ~45% of AmLaw 200 Blogging

And if you think of blogging as having extended conversations on the net, as Kevin O'Keefe describes, then attorneys of a Certain Age probably really are using social networking to connect with others. (unless they're all in the other 55%)

Enough social networking for the evening, if I don't leave soon I will be of a Certain Age before I stop! I'm off to feed the dogs.

Announcing the addition of Finz Advance Tapes to the Pincus CLE line-up

Faith Pincus — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:42:33 -0800

I'm excited to announce that I have recently added Finz Advance Tapes to the Pincus CLE line up.

Brought to you by Pincus Legal Education, Inc., I will continue to deliver the excellent, informative and fun audio summaries and analysis of Torts and Civ Pro/Evidence cases in CA that Professor Steven Finz was known for these past 18 years.

In the tradition of Professor Steven Finz, Professor Pat Cain and other well respected law professors will continue to analyze and summarize the latest case law in CA related to the two available series topics: Torts and Civ Pro/Evidence.

I have already listened to one of Pat's Cd's and her humor and tone is as charming and easy to listen to as Steve's was. The next monthly CD release will include Professor John Diamond from UC Hastings and Professor Pat Cain discussing the latest torts cases.

We will announce the Civil Procedure/Evidence professors to take over in a bit.

Please see www.advancecollege.org or www.pincuslegaled.com for more information.

Getting to know the Pincus behind Pincus Professional Education

Faith Pincus — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:17:17 -0800

Tim Baran of uMCLE, mentioned in a few prior blogs, was sweet enough to interview me recently.

If you are interested in knowing more about my background and what drove me to create Pincus Professional Education, you can read all about it in Tim's interview with me, published on his blog: "My Interview with @faithpincus That Turned Into a Primer for CLE Presenters and Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/7AWjjv ."

Check out Lawyerist.com's take on why teaching makes you a better attorney

Faith Pincus — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:28:41 -0800

I just came across this post via my linked-in Legal Marketing group. Nena Street makes some good points about why teaching makes you a better laywer.

I would add that you need to make sure you are prepared when you do go out and teach.

Some good suggestions on CLE changes that would help attorneys keep costs down

Faith Pincus — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:38:04 -0800

Thanks to twitter, I came across an attorney, Donna Seyle, who happens to both practice in my state (CA), teach various social networking related seminars, and blog about topics near and dear to my heart! She also has guest bloggers and this most recent post of interest is by one I have met via Twitter: Tim Baran, of uMCLE.

In a recent post, "Helping Lawyers Meet the Cost of MCLE Requirements," Tim discusses how changes to CLE governing rules could help keep down CLE costs for attorneys.

The top two suggestions are:

All CLE Boards should allow for reciprocity, letting attorneys get CLE credit in multiple states for the same course. All attorneys with multiple state licensing could benefit from this practice.
Remove limits on the number of credit hours that can be earned via on-demand programming such as streaming video or DVDs.

One item Tim didn't mention, but would also help, would be for CLE boards/regulators to focus on the quality of CLE provider seminars and reduce exorbitant fees that are charged providers and then passed on to attorneys. The fees charged by CLE boards throughout the country vary widely, from $300 in California to up to $6,000 in Illinois. When a state bar governing board is charging a CLE provider thousands of dollars, they are doing so to make money off the provider, they are not doing so because their cost of policing that provider is some how more expensive than any other state's costs.

Social Networking: Interconnections and the Future of CLE

Faith Pincus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:57:29 -0800

Ok, I admit it.

Today I launched my blog, so I'm a bit more excited than usual and a bit more socially active than usual. Social networking active that is.

Not that I don't have Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In open on a daily basis, it's just that I don't always look at them. It takes so much time... whine whine...

Anyway, today I am excited. And today I saw a post at legalinformatics about CLE and Social Networks that got me even more exicted.

Legalinformatics Blog mentions that:

Of particular note in recent months is the use of social networks by CLE providers. Many CLE services and content creators are using social media to market their programs and connect with lawyers and other customers.

Yes, that is true. Though this has actually been going on for a bit more than recent months. I think I met the handsome Tim Baran of uMCLE (@umcle) via twitter pretty early in 2009. And I've been staying in touch with Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA , #aclea) members Mark Rosch (internet for lawyers @MarkRosch ) and Sean Carter (professional CLE speaker, @lawhumorist) via twitter instead of email, for the most part, for almost least a year.

All three of these CLE related folks have been posting CLE announcements, interesting legal news tidbits and connecting with folks for much longer than I have, and I've been at it since Christmas 2008.

Many of my competitors have been posting announcements about their upcoming CLE seminars on twitter for quite some time as well, though I have to admit that just posting your own CLE seminar announcements on your twitter account gets a bit boring for your followers.

Me, I haven't quite gotten into the swing of that form of twitter posting - yet. I still abide by the "provide value, don't just advertise" twitter manners mantra found on Mashable and elsewhere. And I can't point to a single customer I have gotten via twitter - yet. But I have made some great CLE contacts!

Some of my speakers have posted upcoming CLE events on Linked-In and Facebook (for example, see Nikki Mehrpoo Jacobson's linked-in post about an Pincus upcoming immigration CLE and Vickie Pynchon of www.negotiationlawblog.com @vpynchon).

And while I haven't met him yet, @Richards1000, a law librarian in PA, posts about upcoming CLE all the time.

But what is most interesting about Social Networking and CLE is...

how providers like myself (and CLE speakers like Sean, Mark, Irwin Karp and others) will be integrating Social Networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook during our CLE seminars.

This is a topic that has been discussed among professional public speakers (people who get paid to speak in public) on linked-in a bit. Some speakers have complained of seeing audience members "twittering" during presentations. The response has been mixed and may be slightly generational (that's my non-scientific impression).

I have invited people to "tweet" at our CLEs about the CLE a few times recently, though I don't know the results. I have tweeted tips from my speakers as they are speaking at a Pincus CLE and seen these tips re-tweeted.

I am currently talking with some of my techies on how to intentionally integrate Twitter and Facebook into live CLE seminars and especially in conjunction with our webinars.

I noticed that Peach New Media already appears to be doing stuff like this.

Maybe it is time for Tim Baran to do another Survey? Since he has more followers on Twitter, I'll let him do it - but Tim, you have to send me the results!

And, if you are looking for a primer on using Twitter for your own business (CLE, law firm or othewise) I recommend Mashable's Twitter Guidebook and also Twitter 101 for Business.

And please, feel free to follow me at @PincusProEd (CLE conversations) and/or @faithpincus (public speaking tips and quotes)

Merry Twittering and Happy Facebook everyone.

Use unbillable time wisely: develop speaking skills & speak at CLE programs

Faith Pincus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:46:55 -0800

I recently read a couple of posts at Above The Law detailing the drastic reduction in average billable hours for associates in 2009.

Their survey showed average associate billing for 2009 at less than 1600 hours (no surprises there). The pithy follow up post by Kashmir Hill discusses what's left for associates to do (besides Facebook and Mafia Wars) - she's pretty funny actually.

Suggestions provided by legal recruiter Dan Binstock, include:

Write articles.

Write speeches and present at conferences.

Help partners with business development.

Write articles, speeches and present at conferences really should just be one big bullet point. This list is missing: hone your skills and increase your knowledge base. But I'll get to that in another post.

My focus in this post is on Dan's second suggestion: create presentations and speak at CLE conferences.

It's an important, but often overlooked, suggestion, especially at the big law firms.

I get approached by solo and small firm practitioners to speak at my CLE programs on a regular basis. But I can't remember ever hearing from a senior associate (or any associate) at a large law firms. It's an interesting trend.

Solos and small firm practitioners - painfully aware of their need to market their services to get paid - know how valuable it is to speak in public.

For solo / small firm practitioners, the benefits include:

more exposure in the legal community, which leads to...
client and consulting referrals, as well as...
reputation building, and of course,
networking, etc.

For associates at larger law firms, the benefits are the same, plus:

good "corporate citizen" points when it comes time for bonuses, reviews and partnership (i.e. it helps answer the perennial question: what have you done for the firm lately)
resume building for lateral moves,
and, ultimately, all of the above help tremendously if it ever comes time jump ship (voluntarily or not) and seek employment elsewhere.

So... kudos to Kashmir and Dan for reminding associates that when they have a few extra hours available, or a few hundred extra hours, they should be working on potential instructional presentations and pitching local, state and national bar associations, niche bar associations and CLE companies.

And for you procrastinators... follow the Nike method ... just do it.

How to improve CLE programs: speakers focus on their audience

Faith Pincus — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:37:17 -0800

When it comes to an attorney creating a CLE program, or any presentation, there is a right way and a wrong way to speak and teach. The right way: focus on the intended audience.

Who are they? What do they want? What’s in it for them?

Good speakers - CLE or otherwise - tailor their presentations to their audience - no matter how many times they have given it.

Speakers on auto-dial are the ones who phone it in. They may be top notch litigators or corporate attorneys at the peak of their game, but unless they tailor their presentation to the audience at hand, it just doesn’t matter. It does not cut it to whip out an old, tried and true Power Point and try to make it fit with the program theme. I've seen quite a few speakers do this and they may get through the presentation unscathed, but they do not make a great over all impression with their audience.

One of the fundamental rules of public speaking is that it is about your audience, not you. Meet their needs, and do it in a logical, and hopefully, somewhat entertaining fashion and you’re good to go.

In the CLE context you can find out from the provider who is attending, who is the typical audience, or get the registration list and have your assistant google them. You can ask the provider to send a short survey to the attendees to better tailor your program.

And for peet’s sake – when you get to the CLE the day of the event – mingle with the audience before the program starts. Introduce yourself. Ask attendees about their practice. Ask them why they are attending, if they have any particular concerns.

Don’t just go sit up on the dias and flip through your notes for 20 minutes until the program starts. Use the pre-speech time as an opportunity to:

Get to know your audience personally and better
Network
Make any last minute adjustments to your presentation based on the feedback you get

Remember, it’s always about your audience.

Is an attorney's credibility all the court is concerned about?

Faith Pincus — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:37:24 -0800

It's about your credibility...

Why start my first blog entry with this particular line, which borrows James Carville’s famous sound bite from Clinton’s first race (the first Clinton that is)? Because it matters.

This particular blog entry is aimed at litigators, but frankly the message applies to everyone, as is painfully and articulately made clear in Carolyn Elefant's post on trust and blogging.

Here’s the deal. I’ve talk to a lot of judges and justices over the last six years, as well as their staff attorneys, and I have listened to a few hundred of them speak. And if there is one over-riding theme, one predominant pattern, one universal truth they all seem to communicate, it’s this: it’s about your credibility.

Yep. “It’s about your credibility.”

Every time I sit through a CLE program or watch an oral argument, I promise myself I will write an article along these lines for some legal journal. And of course, I never do. So instead of a lengthy article, here’s my blog post.

What does it mean?

It means, for litigators at least, that when you practice law, when you are in the court room, when you write that brief, every time the court has any contact with you what-so-ever: your actions affect your credibility, your credibility effects your reputation, and your reputation affects your success.

If you have a good reputation, a clean reputation – i.e. you are credible, you aren’t known for misstating the facts or the case law, or for trying to pull a fast one on the court or your opponent – the court will generally cut you some slack if slack needs to be cut.

The court will generally believe your case cites, instead of triple checking every single thing you write or say.

The court will be more inclined to believe the reasons you have for needing an extension or changing a hearing date.

In other words, the court will work with you.

Why does it matter?

Well, really, I wish I didn't have to explain this one, but for the newer attorneys and even the stubborn litigators out there who were brought up on the kill or be killed method of lawyering, it matters because the court can make your life easy or it can make your life hell. It matters because when there is a really close call, you want to be standing in the corner the court respects. It matters because "the court" - judges and their staff, have very very long memories.

Along these lines, here are the top suggestions I repeatedly hear the court say attorneys should live by, to maintain their credibility:

Be civil and take the high road, regardless of what opposing counsel, or the judge, is doing - really
Don’t mis-state the facts or case holdings – sort of a "duh" huh?
Don’t ignore the bad facts or case law hoping the court won’t notice – it will
Read the case you cite – don’t rely on someone else’s interpretation or citation - seriously
Follow the rules – they are there for a reason

I noticed another suggestion from a post by Robert Chapski on the Young Lawyers Blog: Think Like a Judge. While Robert was discussing discovery, the suggestion is universal at least for litigators. Put yourself in the Judge's shoes.

Would you be pissed off finding out that one of the attorneys in front of you fudged on the facts? Would you really want to read, or hear, another nasty dig directed at opposing counsel? What would you think of an attorney who mis-cited a case, or worse, cited a case that was completely off point?

I could go on for a few more pages, or days, but you get the point. All of the bad behavior for which attorneys are famous has taken its toll on the court.

You can wake up and smell the coffee and practice a different kind of law in court, or you can keep on pissing off the court. It really is your choice.

And remember, it’s about your credibility.