THROW BACK FRIDAY

By Rumpole on November 17, 2023

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOUR FAVOURITE LEGAL BLOG–

11/16/2005- On Thursday we turned 18! Now we can serve in the army. But we still cannot drink.

It all started with this:

Welcome to the Justice Building Blog.

My Name is Horace Rumpole.

THE BLOG: WELCOME POST (justicebuilding.blogspot.com)

Beyond that, the post is pretty much cringe-worthy- but every long journey begins with the first step, and being bored at work on 11/16/2005, we took that step. And here we are…

Quiz for Judges under 40: Name the two people in the photograph.

Bonus question: Did you ever MEET either of the two people in the photograph?

Pizza Party! 🍕

There was a pizza party for new prosecutors and PDs last week in the REGJB. A bunch of judges spoke. None of them seemed happy. Maybe the pizza wasn’t good. Try Casolas on 17th and US1. It is not NY pizza, but it’s big and decent.

Unhappy Judges

We have two pieces of advice for success for you new lawyers (well, actually three, as one of them is read the Blog regularly despite what your supervisors tell you)

2. And this is the important one- you can ignore everything the judges told you unless they said this (which means they stole it from one of our prior posts, which is why you should read the Blog every day: It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, and 30 seconds to destroy it.

So don’t lie to your colleagues. Don’t lie to opposing counsel. Don’t get caught lying to the Court- ( we jest)….don’t lie to the Court. We all make mistakes (in fact we made one in 2020, it was in the latter part of June). Own your mistakes. Learn from them. Let your word be your bond. If you tell someone something, they should not need an email or text or snapchat to confirm it. You should work to become the type of lawyer about whom people say “If she told you that, you can take it to the bank.”

If you want some additional advice, then there is this: study your craft. Read the books (not the YouTube videos) written by the masters. The Art Of Cross Examination by Francis Wellman. Anything written by Gerry Spence. Read the biography of Edward Bennett Williams “The Man To See“. Study great orators. A young Roy Black obtained the speeches of General Douglas McArthur to study his speech patterns in an effort to be a better litigator. Go watch trials and see who is good and steal what works. We don’t copyright our arguments.

Develop patterned responses to situations that repeat themselves, and then hone them. When things are tough, they will help you out of a hole.

Quick example- if a potential juror complains about always being called to jury duty (which happens a lot) suggest they play the lottery because they are so lucky. This will get them to chuckle, and if the panel is being tough and quiet a little levity may loosen them up. There are about 20 responses jurors will always give in voir dire and if you learn them and develop a quick retort, it will give you the confidence to move forward when things are tough. Another example- when asked to follow the law jurors will invariably reply “I think I can” or “I will try” which we know is not sufficient. Create a well-honed response that you can fall back on that is designed to get them to agree to follow the burden of proof even though they don’t really agree with it.

You (new ASAs and PDs) have embarked on a great adventure. Enjoy the ride.