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i think when you’re giving advice to
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clients
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it’s primarily to advise them of their
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situation
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to make sure they understand that it’s
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their issue it’s their legal issue they
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have to make the decisions
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uh we’re not in the business of making
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decisions for you our
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purpose is to provide you with the most
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accurate up-to-date information to make
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you the most informed decision
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so the role of a lawyer is not to
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replace the client or to make the client
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or to encourage the client to do one
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thing or another our
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job is to provide information provide
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input
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so that the client can make the most
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informed decision
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the most important thing to be
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successful in the courtroom is to be
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yourself
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trial lawyers have a lot of different
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styles and a lot of them are successful
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with different personalities and
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different approaches but you can’t
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imagine
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you can’t manufacture anything juries
01:01
see that
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as do judges so you’ve got to be natural
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and you’ve got to be yourself
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and the best way to do that is to be
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thoroughly prepared
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if you’re confident in your preparation
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then you don’t have to manufacture
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some other bravado or create some
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character that you’ve seen on television
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that you think might be more effective
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all of us are different unique
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personalities so
01:24
accept who you are maximize those
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abilities but be yourself
01:32
i think very early in my career from
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senior lawyers of the firm i joined i
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got two pieces of advice
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that have proven to be very effective
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that i
01:41
pass on with every lawyer that comes
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here when we’re doing an
01:45
interview process to see if they’ll fit
01:47
the first is
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return your phone calls you have to have
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effective communication with your client
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return a phone call every day if you’re
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in trial there’s some reason you can’t
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have your secretary advise a client he
02:00
can’t get back to you today he’ll call
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you in the morning
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but respond to every client every day
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that you hear from them
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and the second piece of information i
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got from one of our senior trial lawyers
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was
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close a file as quickly as you can do
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not
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take a file that’s going to be a quote
02:19
money maker for a long period of time
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string it out for your personal benefit
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you’re better served as a lawyer to
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close a file as quickly as you can that
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makes for happy clients
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and that makes for repeat clients so
02:32
don’t think about
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what a particular matter will do to your
02:36
year in terms of the hours it can
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generate
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think of how can i get this result over
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a good result for my client as quickly
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as possible
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close files as fast as you can