Super Lawyers - Minnesota 2011

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR
YOUNG LAWYERS? AS TOLD TO BETSY GRACA

There is a great deal of pressure
on lawyers to specialize and
find a niche right now, and I
think young lawyers ought to
resist that or at least fake it.

You’re going to be practicing law for the next 35 or 40 years and the world’s going to constantly change, even faster than it changed for me. And the laws are going to change and the societal systems are going to change, so they’re going to need to have, within the context of one career, 10

careers or 50 careers.

[They] have to go where things look fun and where you can make some money, or where you can change the world—and that’s going to change for them. When they do get out and they go into a law firm or a government agency, there is going to be a lot of pressure to specialize and you sort of have to take it for what it’s worth.

BRIAN B. O’NEILL / FAEGRE & BENSON,
BUSINESS LITIGATION

They should know that there’s
been a deep trust placed in
them by the profession and it’s
critical that they live up to it.

They should understand that they can’t right every wrong and they can’t win every case. They can’t guarantee results. All they can do is the very best they can do on every case.

I would also advise them that it’s a professional obligation to help those who can’t help themselves, the least fortunate among us, by means of pro bono legal work. And that’s a very important obligation that should never be overlooked.

JON M. HOPEMAN / FELHABER, LARSON,
FENLON & VOGT, CRIMINAL LAW

I would say for a new lawyer,
it’s really important to trust
your instincts.

As a new lawyer, you don’t have necessarily the benefit of experience in real-world practice to know how to gauge whether something is reasonable, or whether someone is being straight with you, or whether a particular course of action is wise. So when you’re a young lawyer, you have your instincts which—if you’ve made it through law school and you’re smart enough to be a young lawyer, then presumably you have a pretty sturdy, reliable set of instincts.

The second thing—and I’m a firm believer in this—is that being a jerk to your opponent, rarely, if ever, advances your client’s interests. It’s almost a cliché to talk about the decline in civility among lawyers in recent decades, but I’ll tell you what: If you are the kind of lawyer who thinks you’re going to win a case by bullying or intimidating or deliberately inconveniencing the other side, you got another thing coming.