Litigation
Cal. Litig. 2014, Volume 27, Number 2
Content
- Adr Update - the Pre-Mediation Conference: An Underused Step Toward Resolution
- California Attorney Fee Orders: When to Appeal, Defend or Settle
- Editor's Foreword This Award-Winning Publication (?)
- Fighting Procrastination in Legal Practice: Defining and Finding Your Role in the Cycle
- From the Section Chair
- Litigation Section Executive Committee Past Chairs
- Masthead
- Mediation Research: What Really Works?
- Mum's the Word: Why Saying Too Much May Invalidate a Contract
- New Lawyer Column: Motion Buffet
- Past Editors-in-Chief
- Riverisland: Inordinate Burdens or Leveling the Playing Field
- Sargon Enterprises v. Usc-a Different Perspective
- Table of Contents
- The Inelegant Art of Scorched Earth Discovery
- McDermott on Demand: Horsing Around
McDermott on Demand: Horsing Around
By Thomas J. McDermott, Jr.
There’s a James Thurber cartoon from the mid-40’s New Yorker in which a group of people are sitting around a card table participating in a séance with a spirit medium. The medium says, "I can’t get in touch with your uncle but there’s a horse here that wants to say hello."
How often do we trial lawyers and appellate lawyers bring in the horse? Even when we have an unbeatable case, a rigorous and refined argument all ready and leading to victory, we can’t keep our mouths shut in court, and we can’t keep our pens quiet while writing a brief. We go on and on before the jury or the judge, eventually leading in even the horse, just in case someone wants a horse.
Why is this? Well, introspective introverts seldom become trial lawyers. It’s either this or the circus. The desire to show off may overwhelm the need to shut up.