Trial lawyers ought to have a war room.
Your office is not a war room; it’s your office. It’s where you do your everyday stuff: answer the phone, check email, enter time, etc. But you shouldn’t prepare for trial there because preparing for trial is a different psychological activity. It requires a different mindset:
I mean, sure, in the early stages when you’re not sure whether the cases really will go to trial, you can work at your regular desk. But, after plea negotiations have fallen through and it really is time to get busy, that trial needs its own space. When it’s time to get serious, I take the file home and sequester myself there. My paralegal has my cell phone in case of emergency but, otherwise, she knows that I’m not to be interrupted. It’s just me and my one immediate problem.
In The Temple of Dawn, Yukio Mishima describes his main character, a lawyer, working so furiously that his office eventually smells like a chicken coop. Yep, that’s how it is. I enter a zone. I eat at random intervals. I don’t shave. I live that case.
Try it for your next trial. Take the phone off the hook and take the file to a place where you can be alone with it. Study it. Prepare. You’ll discover a new meaning of ready for trial.
By the way, here are some essentials for my particular war room:
- a standing desk (preferably with a cork surface. It’s quieting, and it’s soft to rest your elbows on. Plus, it’ll make you feel like Proust.)
- ample Topo Chico
- string cheese
- legal pads
- Pilot G-2 gel pens
- highlighters
- a seating area with a laptop
- a redweld with sufficient manila folders to accommodate all of the witnesses
- licorice!
- a kettlebell
- and, of course, a pocket full of shells.
What’s in yours? Tell me in the comments below.
