Description

With Rules of the Road™, Rick Friedman revolutionized the way plaintiff’s lawyers structure their cases. With Polarizing the Case, he gave us the weapons to fight back against the most common and insidious defenses our opponents raise. Now, in Rick Friedman on Becoming a Trial Lawyer, Friedman turns to the inner obstacles that keep us from reaching our full potential as trial lawyers. Combining nuts-and-bolts practical advice with inspirational insights, he guides us on the journey every trial lawyer must take, from the struggle to gain trial experience to the search for happiness in a career fraught with conflict and frustration. Along the way, he addresses topics as diverse as common mistakes even the most experienced trial lawyers make, and the benefits of psychotherapy. The perfect gift for yourself—or for any trial lawyer in your life.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: Entering the Jungle

1. Why Be a Trial Lawyer?
2. Individual Billing Unit or Trial Lawyer?
3. Educating Yourself
4. Do You Have What It Takes?
5. Your First Trial
6. Beyond Technique
7. You and Your Opponents

Part II: Traps in the Jungle

8. Beware of Formulas
9. Do Not Expect Perfection
10. Forget Playing It Safe
11. More Is Not Better
12. Strategic Detachment: Don’t React to Every Attack or Issue
13. Your Lawyer Status Carries No Wieght with the Jury
14. Forget About Looking Good
15. Don’t Try to Fool the Jury
16. Don’t Assume the Jury Will respond to Your Favorite Arguments
17. The Limits of Logic and Sympathy
18. Don’t Gorge on Experts and Starve for Lay Witness
19. Spend More Time with Witnesses and Clients
20. Jurors Don’t Need to Like You or Your Client
21. Embrace Your Conservative Values
22. Silence Can Be Your Friend
23. You Must Ask for Money
24. Superstition

Part III: At Home in the Jungle

25. Therapy
26. Winning
27. Losing
28. Settlement
29. Physical Health
30. Family and Friends
31. Competitors and Comrades
32. Partners and Staff
33. The Key to Unhappiness
Afterward
Recommended Reading List

Media Coverage

2/23/2010 — Never wrestle with a pig – Rick Friedman on Becoming a Trial Lawyer
Reviewed by George R. Wise, Jr., ALTA Docket (Winter 2010)

Clarence Darrow once said, "The only real lawyers are trial lawyers, and trial lawyers try cases to juries". Increasingly, trial lawyers find it more and more difficult to follow that maxim. The number of jury trials completed each year continues to decrease. Jury trials are more complicated to prepare and more complex to present. Given these difficulties one may realistically ask, "Why become a trial lawyer?" continued »

11/18/2009 — Rick Friedman on Becoming a Trial Lawyer
The author of this new book offers a formula to help lawyers maintain the "golden balance."
Reviewed by Rick Friedling, Plaintiff Magazine (Nov. 2009)

In mathematics and the arts, an algebraic irrational constant, 1.6180339887, known at least since the Renaissance as the "golden ratio" or "golden rectangle," has been the ideal proportion utilized by artists and architects as embodying the most aesthetically pleasing balance. The number occurs, however, throughout our perception of the universe in seemingly unconnected but identical ways – from the proportion of spiral galaxies continued »

10/01/2009 — On Becoming a Trial Lawyer
Reviewed by Howard L. Nations and Stephen Daniel in TRIAL (Oct. 2009)

In 1829, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story stated: "The law is a jealous mistress and requires a long and constant courtship. It is not to be won by trifling favors, but by lavish homage." continued »

5/19/2009 — On Becoming a Trial Lawyer, an Introspective Journey of Self-Discovery
by Scott Carness, wstla.org

Rick Friedman has done it again. The author of Rules of the Road and Polarizing the Case has written what is arguably his most compelling book yet, Rick Friedman On Becoming a Trial Lawyer. This time around Friedman takes us on a guided trip through the soul of the trial lawyer. He examines reasons for becoming a trial lawyer, considers what psychologically is needed to succeed, and offers hope and encouragement for the burgeoning continued »

Reviews

1. From one of the country’s best trial lawyers comes some of the best advice about joining the wonderful, baffling, crucial profession of trial lawyer.
   —David Ball, Ph.D., author of David Ball on Damages

2. This has to be the best lawyer book I have ever read.
   —Steve Alvarez, Washington

3. As Rick writes, the book is not about him, but about you and your journey.
   —Don Keenan, child advocate and member of the Inner Circle of Advocates

4. This book belongs in every lawyer’s–and law student’s–library; and not hidden on the shelf, but at least as handy for easy reference as the bottle of scotch and our dog-eared To Kill a Mockingbird
   —Rick Friedling, from Plaintiff Magazine

5. Those who desire to achieve success and avoid the traps of the jungle, while still functioning as a whole person, will consider this book a valuable resource. On Becoming a Trial Lawyer provides helpful insight to those who would follow the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson: ‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.’
   —Howard Nations and Stephen Daniel, Trial Magazine

6. Rick Friedman has done it again. The author of Rules of the Road and Polarizing the Case has written what is arguably his most compelling book yet, Rick Friedman On Becoming a Trial Lawyer…. This is a must-read for new attorneys, and for every developing trial lawyer. Of course, since all good trial lawyers are continuously developing, this means that you should read this book.
   —Scott Carness from WSAJ’s Trial News