Former United States District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of McCarter & English. Courtesy photo Former U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of McCarter & English. Courtesy photo

Judge Eduardo Robreno, McCarter & English

What's the most important thing you've learned during the course of your career that you wish you knew as a young lawyer?

Mastery of the law requires a commitment to lifelong education. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. put it, the law is, at any one time, a prediction of what courts will do in the future under particular circumstances. Therefore, in the law, there are no permanent or forever settled answers to questions. Each case is unique and the law is organic. Application of the law thus requires a full appreciation of the circumstances in which the case arises.

Change in the legal field seems to be ever accelerating. What's the biggest change you've seen in the profession during your career?