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When I was in law school, I thought that legal practitioners were professionals in every sense and that they treated each other with dignity and courtesy. In law school, no one mentions the gritty parts of legal practice, and surrounded by all of the mahogany walls and leather-bound books of law school, I thought that most lawyers get along with their adversaries. However, after interning for a judge the summer after my first year in law school, I quickly realized that adversaries do not always get along, and this is usually due to the friction inherent in the legal profession.
I interned for a criminal judge in Brooklyn, New York, and I had the opportunity to view counsel argue motions, present evidence to juries, and carry out other legal functions. One time, a defense lawyer and a prosecutor were arguing a motion before the judge for whom I interned. Although most interactions between defense lawyers and prosecutors I saw were cordial, this exchange was extremely tense.
That the lawyers did not get along was very clear to anyone watching. The court attorney told me that the bad blood between these two lawyers had been there for years, and if memory serves, it went back to when the two lawyers worked with each other some time ago. The lawyers could not look at each other directly, and the body language of each was incredibly hostile to the other. When the judge sided with one of the lawyers over the other, the victorious attorney let out a jubilant yell that was not typically uttered by professionals in court.
After the hearing, it was lunch time, so I headed to the elevators to go outside and grab something to eat. Standing next to the elevator bank were the same two lawyers I just saw in court. Often, adversaries will engage in small talk. Not these two. Each was looking at their BlackBerry (yes, this was when BlackBerries were popular) and facing in the opposite direction from the other.
When the elevator came, I stepped inside, expecting both lawyers would pile in as well. This did not occur. The lawyer who was closer got inside. The other feuding attorney just stood there with his nose in his BlackBerry trying not to acknowledge the existence of the other lawyer. For some reason, this image stuck with me throughout my legal career since it was such an archetype of lawyers who do not get along.
I am rarely the type of lawyer who cannot share an elevator with an adversary. I generally view the legal profession as brutal enough, and friction between adversaries should be avoided so that we do not create more stress than already exists between lawyers. Earlier this year, I had a contentious matter that was fiercely litigated. In the end, I did not get the result that I wanted, which is something that even the best lawyers need to deal with.
When it came time to leave the courthouse, I was waiting for the elevator to arrive, and my adversary came walking toward the elevator. When the doors opened, my adversary turned for the stairs as if it might be too awkward to ride down to the ground floor with me. I waved my adversary into the elevator since I got along with this adversary pretty well, and I did not think it would be particularly awkward to share an elevator with this lawyer. It feels like being able to share an elevator with my adversary is a pretty good measure of how I practice law, which is to build connections to adversaries and not create uneasy relationships.
In any event, there are reasons why you would not want to occupy the same space as an adversary, especially if attorneys are in court with clients. However, if lawyers are unable to share an elevator with their adversaries, they might want to rethink their practices. While some might believe that diligent representation requires conflict with an adversary that can boil over into interpersonal tensions, fostering a connection with counterparts is also vital to the practice of law.
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 jordan@rothman.law.
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