Michael Harris’ “Closing Argument”

Another mentor I had at the time, I law clerked for him while I was waiting for the bar exam. Results come in, his name is Paul Marin, out of Long Beach, another shout out, great guy. I called him and I tell him about it he’s like, “Okay.” He’s like, “Yeah, that makes sense.” “What do you mean?” “Well, yeah, I mean, I can see how you could lose that too. I mean, sure, you’re gonna lose many more. So, test yourself up and go hang on the next one. There’ll be better cases, bigger cases. You’re gonna win some, you’re definitely gonna lose some. So what, you’re a smart guy, you’ll figure it out.”

And he was just so nonchalant and cavalier about it, but not in an indifferent way, but just, “This is what happens and this is what we do.” And this is not like a defining thing. It just teaches you something that you can use the next time around. And I think that that’s something I’ve really tried to hold onto throughout my career, is that my job is to do whatever I can within my power to make this outcome for my client and if that’s, you know, advising them to settle when they need to settle, great. If that’s advising them to go to task and go to trial and try and really get what you deserve and what’s fair, let’s do that. But no matter what happens along the way, you just have to look at it as an opportunity to put something from that experience forward in the next.

Another lawyer I once met a long time ago, I forget his name to be quite frank, he once told me, “It’s the height of arrogance to think that this is about you. It’s not about you. It’s never about us. It’s always about the client. You have your pity party for one night if you take an L and then you wake up the next day and go work for the next client that needs you. Don’t make it about yourself.” True words have really never been spoken as it relates to trial lawyers. It’s true. You just gotta do it. You take L’s, you’re gonna have great wins, you’re gonna have really crappy losses, but you get up, you do it again the next day, and you do it because those people need you to do that job.