The Deep End<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 In \u201cThe Deep End,\u201d five new associates join L.A.\u2019s most prestigious law firm\u2014Sterling, Huddle, Oppenheim, & Craft. \u00a0As the show\u2019s title would imply, these associates are immediately thrown into the deep end.\u00a0\u00a0 I can appreciate that filming document reviews and the preparation of written discovery would not make for entertaining television.\u00a0 I also understand that filming legal research in a law library filled with Pacific Reporters is better cinema photography than filming.\u00a0 Thus, within their first week of practice, the legal neophytes are handling motion hearings, taking depositions, meeting with the firm\u2019s major clients, and of course, groping each other, their support staff, and their clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The groping is to be expected; after all, it is television.\u00a0 But as we all learned in ethics classes and CLE seminars, the groping should never involve your clients (unless, of course, there was a relationship that preexisted the representation).\u00a0 Also, no lawyer\u2014whether a first-year attorney or an experienced litigator\u2014should be representing a client in a pro bono case that creates a conflict of interest with the firm\u2019s existing clients.\u00a0 And if you learn that the opposing counsel (who also happens to be our young attorney\u2019s father) has committed an ethics violation by destroying evidence, be reminded of our duty as attorneys to report such conduct.\u00a0 As I so often heard in law school, no client or case is worth losing your license.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0As a reality, firms often throw new lawyers into the deep end.\u00a0 This \u201csink-or-swim\u201d approach is a tried and true method of teaching the practice of law.\u00a0 But it is a practice that should always involve a lifeguard.\u00a0 My advice to younger attorneys is to seek out those lifeguards when you think you might be in over your head, whether it is a senior attorney at your firm or a trusted mentor.\u00a0 Of course, the lifeguards still need to watch the pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Thank you, Professor O\u2019Hear and Professor Slavin for inviting me to share my comments with the Marquette University Law School community.\u00a0 On my first day of law school, former Marquette Professor Eric Goldman informed our orientation group that, much to his own dismay, the practice of law is nothing like it is portrayed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-practice","category-popular-culture-and-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"b9df7f5b8b1280964519cb1f0cd53f13\"](\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/b9df7f5b8b1280964519cb1f0cd53f13.jpg\" "\\"b9df7f5b8b1280964519cb1f0cd53f13\\"")
Thank you, Professor O\u2019Hear and Professor Slavin for inviting me to share my comments with the Marquette University Law School community.\u00a0<\/p>\n