Only a very small percentage of civil lawsuits make it to trial. Accordingly, a lucky litigator gets a jury trial (a real trial) now and then, a bench trial (almost a trial) here and there, and an arbitration hearing (kind of like a trial) from time to time. You enjoy oral argument—even a discovery dispute on Zoom. But deep down you want to be in a courtroom—opening, closing, objecting, cross-examining, and pleading your client’s case to the jury. The good stuff.
While I have been fortunate enough to have trial work over the years, lately the pace has picked up considerably. From July 2023 through June 2024, I was first chair in six multi-week civil trials. Four real, one almost, and one kind of. Four in Federal Court, one in New York State Court, and one in arbitration. All of them hotly contested, and intense.
