Best Lawyer

Best lawyer

Well... I am a Lawyer practicing in Mumbai, India so can at the best give you an idea how is Lawyers life like.. but I am sure the thrill,stress and other components are typically same pan globe... a usual day schedule. depends upon 1) which Court you have to attend ie how far it is from. your residence.. 2) what type of matter you are about to attend ie whether it's a Criminal matter or Civil or Corporate and so on. Days when you are about to argue criminal cases are much more stressful compared to the Civil. cases.... also days when you are about to cross. examine a. witness, you spend your. time doing recaps and going through all the questions which you will. ask the witness and also thinking and pondering about all possibilities of the witness answering in your favour or. not. Similiarly if witness is an Expert witness like Doctor, Forensic Expert, Finger print expert, Handwriting expert. then the things become more hard work and all. research and analysis about that field of study as you cannot afford to ask insensible questions to an expert witness who has mastery on his. field. and you have to understand and prepare the said topic questions be it of science, engineering or anything so perfectly that an expert. should. not at all feel. comfortable in the witness box thinking that you do not know anything about his field. Similiarly while cross examining an Engineer you need to have knowledge of an Engineer, while cross examination in Taxation case you need to have better accounting laws than a Chartered Accountant, while cross examining a Doctor you need to have all knowledge about medical jurisprudence and while cross examining a Police Officer you need to be more cunning and witty than him to elicit all what you need from him to make your case stronger. You need to be Clairvoyant at the highest as you never know with what point your opponent lawyer may hit an argument with at the same time you need to be at your toes to be prepared to counter an argument made by other side at spot. As a small error may lead your client to live his whole life in prison or a smallest mistake from your end may lead to your client losing millions. Lastly you need to be always strong and focussed as you are have chosen a work where people only come to you with problems, pain, suffering and it's not a normal work place where you may order a Pizza and celebrate with your boss or team mates rather you see murderers, criminals etc every day.. Divorce cases, Civil property disputes etc thus over all life is tough and you have to be glued to Law books, old Judgements,citations, case papers, sections, provisions even when you are home. You have to sacrifice your favourite TV shows (for past 7 yrs I have not seen my favourite show at one stretch) so once you have donned your black uniform it's all about Business of Law!

It’s a very painstaking profession. You have to dot every “i” and cross every “t” and you may still not get things right.

My legal assistant, who worked for me for 20 years and was very skilled, used to say, succinctly, “Everything is hard.” You can’t cut corners.

You have to remember a lot of things: substantive law, procedural law, the rules of evidence, your ethical limitations, be appealing to your clients and prospective clients.

You have to know what papers to file, how to file them, the rules on time limitations, how Judge A runs her court versus how Judge B runs his court, how to pull a court file in an old case from the court archives, who is the best and cheapest process server, who runs the best stenographer business, what temp service provides the most qualified workers, and so on. No one teaches that stuff, you just learn from experience. It takes a long time.

For many lawyers, assistants, secretaries, and paralegals come and go, so you have to be on top of what they’re doing and be able to train new workers quickly. If you fail at that, watch out for a malpractice suit or an ethical grievance.

If you’re in private practice, you have to know how to manage your part of the business.

You have to possess a fair degree of cleverness and ability to think on your feet, to change tracks in mid-course when a new and unanticipated twist comes up.

If you’re not careful in your early years, you can easily become an insufferable person. For most people, experience distills that out of you, but it can take time and be a lonely passage.

The kind of people who are drawn to law as a profession tend to be people who like to test boundaries, are competitive, who enjoy arguing, but in a contradictory sort of way are also bookish. They like to be right, preferably more right than you. I once had a friend who said that “the kind of people who become lawyers are the people who once were 10-year-olds who had memorized all the rules of Monopoly and who made you want to strangle them every time you played the game with them.” Point taken.

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