I like to think several things. The most important – you may laugh at this – is that you have a fair judge. You’re not gonna be very successful if the judge is unfair and weighted against you or your client. So let’s assume the judge is at least objectively fair. Then I think what you need to do as the lawyer is hear the judge out. Hear what’s going on. If it’s a jury trial, face the jury and look and get a feeling for where they’re going and what they’re accomplishing and what they’re reacting to and the like. So I think presence in the courtroom, ability to understand where everyone’s going, ability to refresh and recollect where everyone’s going – those kinds of things are very important.

Generally, preparation – you can’t beat preparation. I worked with a friend of mine some years ago named Michael Seifert, who retired a bit younger than I am right now. Michael was a great trial lawyer, and one of the reasons was he would make notebooks that were totally comprehensive and totally organized. I like to think that I follow that kind of path also. When you’re gonna try a case – and, of course, many cases are not tried; many are settled – but if you’re gonna try a case, you be ready for it.