HIGH FIVE

A TRIAL LAWYER must master FIVE BASICS:

1. always think as a court
2. not to equate with a client
3. never act as a court
4. always perform the actual task of a lawyer
5. to be properly involved.

To think how the court means: to be able to judge everything in a case from the perspective from which it will be judged by the court; from the least favourable perspective for the customer. NOT TO EQUATE WITH THE CLIENT MEANS THAT: the lawyer must evaluate everything also from the perspective of the court AND CAN NOT BE FRIGHTENED BY THIS PROSPECT IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CLIENT. Never act like a court means that: a lawyer cannot triumph in the presence of a client because of what he saw when assessing – from the perspective of the court – all aspects of the case (this would mean that the lawyer acts as a court, that is, he gives a judgment for the court before he has taken up the actual task at all). The real task of the lawyer is: FIND A WAY, HOW TO FIGHT OFF all even the most hopeless issues seen from the perspective of the court.

Proper involvement means that: a lawyer should perform a real task with such commitment AS IF HE HIMSELF WAS HIS OWN CLIENT and must ask himself in the round the question: if this was my problem, I would be alone as my client satisfied with the solution that, as a lawyer, I propose to someone else.