Lawyers,
like
pretty
much
everyone
else,
do
not
like
to
discuss
their
defeats. When
attorneys
speak
to
one
another,
they
usually
discuss
their
victories
in
order
to
promote
themselves
in
front
of
colleagues. However,
even
the
best
lawyers
lose
sometimes,
especially
when
either
the
law,
the
facts,
or
both
are
against
them. Losing
can
be
a
valuable
learning
experience
for
lawyers,
and
attorneys
should
discuss
their
defeats
more
frequently
since
it
can
be
a
valuable
learning
experience
for
attorneys.
I
learned
much
about
the
legal
profession
from
defeats
that
law
firms
at
which
I
worked
endured
earlier
in
my
legal
career. Shortly
after
graduating
from
law
school,
I
worked
at
a
Biglaw
shop
performing
mostly
grunt
work
for
some
huge
litigation
matters. The
firm
took
on
a
pro
bono
case
for
a
charity
they
routinely
assisted. Our
adversary
was
a
sloppy
solo
practitioner
who
was
unprepared
for
court
and
drafted
papers
that
were
so
bad,
they
might
as
well
have
been
written
in
crayon
(this
was
an
old
expression
we
used
to
say
about
poorly
drafted
documents).
In
any
event,
my
law
firm
diligently
represented
the
client
at
trial
and
were
more
polished,
prepared,
and
professional
than
our
adversary.
The
adversary
still
won
the
case
since
the
law
and
facts
were
all
on
his
side. The
appeal
was
prosecuted
by
one
of
the
top
lawyers
in
the
country,
and
this
impressive
litigator
was
not
able
to
save
the
case
from
being
decided
against
our
client. The
impact
of
losing
taught
me
a
valuable
lesson:
no
matter
how
impressive
a
lawyer
is,
if
the
law
and
the
facts
are
against
a
client,
chances
are,
the
client
will
lose.
While
working
my
first
job
out
of
law
school,
I
was
assigned
to
a
huge
litigation
matter
in
which
our
firm
was
up
against
another
large
law
firm. Mostly
due
to
the
fact
that
we
had
fewer
resources
than
our
adversary,
our
firm
had
a
very
difficult
time
notching
victories
against
this
other
law
firm.
Our
counterparts
overwhelmed
us
with
the
sheer
number
of
lawsuits
they
initiated
in
connection
with
this
litigation,
and
we
always
felt
like
we
were
responding
to
our
adversaries
rather
than
taking
control
of
the
litigation.
In
one
chapter
of
that
litigation,
we
lost
a
given
hearing
the
same
day
as
oral
argument,
which
is
a
rarity
in
my
experience. Many
of
the
associates
went
out
to
a
bar
after
work
that
day
in
order
to
drown
our
sorrows
and
commiserate
together
about
the
defeat. However,
this
entire
episode
taught
me
much
about
litigation,
including
how
good
litigators
need
to
have
well-orchestrated
plans
for
a
case
and
control
the
pace
of
a
lawsuit
rather
than
react
to
actions
by
adversaries. I
think
about
the
lessons
learned
from
this
experience
often
when
I
handle
lawsuits
now.
Recently,
I
attended
a
lawyers
happy
hour,
and
was
speaking
to
another
lawyer
about
various
topics
when
our
biggest
legal
fails
came
up. The
lawyer
related
that
he
was
once
scolded
by
a
judge
for
not
annexing
a
required
document
to
a
motion
he
filed.
I
was
impressed
that
this
lawyer
admitted
that
he
messed
up
since
lawyers
often
do
not
discuss
any
of
their
failures,
especially
when
speaking
to
other
attorneys.
One
transactional
lawyer
in
the
group,
who
did
not
have
litigation
experience,
inquired
about
how
this
lawyer
messed
up. I
bet
this
transactional
lawyer
now
knows
that
if
that
lawyer
files
a
certain
motion
in
the
future,
they
should
not
make
the
same
mistake
this
other
attorney
made. I
definitely
think
about
this
story
when
filing
new
motions,
and
it
assisted
me
recently
when
reviewing
a
court
rule
related
to
a
specific
kind
of
motion
I
had
not
thought
about
since
the
bar
exam.
All
told,
lawyers
can
learn
a
lot
from
their
failures,
and
they
can
also
teach
others
by
discussing
how
they
made
missteps
in
the
past.
Although
it
is
not
always
fun
to
talk
about
how
a
lawyer
failed,
attorneys
can
use
failures
to
grow
and
teach
others
not
to
make
the
same
missteps
in
the
future.
Jordan
Rothman
is
a
partner
of
The
Rothman
Law
Firm,
a
full-service
New
York
and
New
Jersey
law
firm.
He
is
also
the
founder
of
Student
Debt
Diaries,
a
website
discussing
how
he
paid
off
his
student
loans.
You
can
reach
Jordan
through
email
at
[email protected].