A few weeks ago, I second-chaired a medical malpractice trial in Virginia state court. My work in the trial included giving our opening statement, directing our standard of care expert, and presenting argument on jury instructions. It was my seventh medical malpractice trial in three years. One week later, I attended the National Trial Advocacy College in Williamsburg, Virginia—essentially, I spent a week working with other lawyers with a similar number of years in practice on mock cases and attending lectures put on by some very talented faculty. Of the small group of eight lawyers I worked with, I was the only one who had ever sat second chair in a jury trial. At least four of my group had never sat second chair in any trial.
The inexperience of my peers was not entirely unexpected. Some worked for mega law firms representing mega clients who do not often go to trial. Another worked for a successful plaintiff’s firm in a state whose laws (and citizenry’s reputation for doling out money) meant personal injury jury trials were rare. Not everyone gets to go to court, much less try cases, even more than a decade out from law school.
I write the above to frame the following realization: I am lucky. Lucky to have found jobs working for good people who gave me opportunities early in my career to try cases. They were mostly small cases at first, to be sure. But I got reps. And, as much as I feel that I need significantly more trial reps’ to develop as a lawyer who can be relied upon to try cases well, I know I am getting more reps’ than most of my peer group. I tried two cases to verdict this year. I have a handful on the books for next year—even if just one of those goes to trial, I am on a positive experiential trajectory. For that, I am grateful.