WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED AND WHO GAVE THAT ADVICE TO YOU? AS TOLD TO BETSY GRACA

My senior partner Bob
Prince has given me lots
of great advice over the
years. Probably the thing
that first comes to mind
is the adage that: “If you
don’t like your client in
that initial meeting, then
neither will a jury.”
That quote, along with his continued
reminders of how the “line-up of the
parties”—again, which party does the
jury relate to more—is probably the most
important part of the case, are things that
I try to follow every day. Cases are difficult
enough without clients for whom you are
positive that a jury would never want to
return a verdict.

JOSHUA HAYES / PRINCE GLOVER & HAYES, TUSCALOOSA, PERSONAL INJURY PLAINTIFF

I did an externship with
[Judge Caryl Privett] and
she was such a wonderful
mentor; one of the things
she emphasized was
that I should always be
courteous, not only in the
courtroom, but also in
written motions.

One thing my dad—he’s an attorney as well—has always emphasized is keeping a client informed. I think that that’s really important, too, just in terms of the practice of law; clients just want to know what’s going on.

Then this is one that that you’ve probably heard a zillion times: If somebody does make you upset for some reason, don’t fire off an email. Take some time to think about it. … Along the same lines of that would be: Sometimes an email can just be impersonal or people can read emails the wrong way. A lot of times, just pick up the phone. Pick up the phone and call someone and you can work things out.

SUSAN HAN / BALCH & BINGHAM, BIRMINGHAM, EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION

When I was in college and
looking at law school, my
dad had said something
along the line of, “You
said you wanted to go to
law school. Well, I suggest
if that’s what you want to
do, then you should do
something about it.”
No one’s going to do it for you. I think
that kind of advice, generally, is true for
almost anything. If you want something,
you need to take care of it yourself because
no one else is going to give you anything—
whether it’s on a case or just working. In a
way, you need to look out for number one
in today’s world. Not to sound selfish or
egotistical or anything of that nature. It’s
the competitive nature of what we do.

Advice I would give is: Don’t let your cases consume you. ... You have to be able to separate the cases that you handle from your daily life because: one, it’s not healthy; and two, you maintain a better perspective on the cases from having that outside view, so to speak. It can be difficult, particularly on a large case that does take a lot of time and requires a lot of involvement—but I think the best thing you can do is maintain separation. You just can’t become your cases.