In a boxing match, at the end of each round the boxers return to their corners for one minute. In that time, their corner man, a trainer, goes over the past round and gives advice of what is wrong, how to adjust the strategy, and applies some ointment to cuts and bruises. In the practice of law, all new lawyers need a corner man (OK, a corner person, but you get the idea). New lawyers need an experienced lawyer to give advice, what not to do, point out their mistakes, and occasionally apply some soothing ointment in the form of encouraging words. The person can be someone appointed as a mentor by the new lawyer’s firm, or someone the new lawyer finds on his or her own. In my own career I have had several; my preceptor (a requirement by the Pennsylvania bar when there were many more individual practitioners and small firms), my trial partner at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, and a supervisor in the Department of Justice. What I learned from them came from their years of experience. Find such a person.
Although my advice in this article is slanted toward litigation, it applies equally as well to the other disciplines in the law practice.
