I was in a lengthy jury trial a couple of weeks ago that took up a week and a half to try (of course this did NOT include all the trial prep work leading up to it). Tired is not the word for what a trial lawyer is after a lengthy trial with serious charges. Jury trials, in particular, take a lot out of a trial lawyer. Your attention is always working and effort has to be expended to divide it strategically between your strategy, counseling your client, trying to read the jury, and paying attention to testimony and keeping a clean record. A lot to do, isn’t it? Afterward when I was speaking to other trial lawyers, they all asked me the same question: Tired?

               We all know the feeling when you are in trial. And afterward, it is imperative to take time off, even if it is a day or two. Of course, did I take my own advice? The work piles up when you are marooned on trial island for a spell, so taking any real time off is not the most responsible of things to do.

                 The work continues to call and call and call. So how can we deal with this? I am still a student of this lesson. I think what has helped me not feel buried is to literally make piece with the fact that you are going to do the best that you can and that you cannot be in more than one place at a time. There is always going to be an impatient court to deal with or clients that feel totally entitled to believe that they are your only client. The only thing you can do sometimes is just take a deep breath, apologize for the delay, and tackle one thing at a time. So far, so good? Maybe. But our collective well-beings and confidence as attorneys deserve a concerted effort in this direction.

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