In a Lawyer's life, there are two phases of time. In first phase, he has all the time in world, but no cases to do. In second phase, he has so many cases that he has hardly anytime to read or to learn anything new.
If you are in first category, I suggest you to go and sit in any court room where Judge does not have habit of reading cases previously at home.
There may be many reasons, why some judges cannot get time at home to pre-read cases of tomorrow. They may be devoting time on writing some most important judgement or they may be devoting time in keeping themselves updated in everyday pouring in new judgements of higher courts.
Whatever may be the causes, when they come in court, they are completely free from bias and will be completely open minded.
They may begin case, by asking lawyer, What is this case about ? What is the core dispute in case? Who took first step in case, like issuing notice? What did he asked in notice? Who filed suit? What did trial court did? Why it so did? And so on and on..
By listening to these, our following 5 skills or abilities or assets are strengthened:
1) Habit of sitting patiently in court with mouth shut. This is a hard habit to develop. But it is observed that lawyers who develop this ability earn more- in knowledge and in money.
2) Listening to these conversations in courts gives you an idea about what questions you should ask during the first free meeting with client. In the first meeting, client judges you not by your degrees, but by the quality and manner of your asking questions. His trust is won immediately if quality of your questions is judge-like.
3) You can see the current trend of law and directions in which judges are taking the law forward. This knowledge is very important in predicting your strategy of arguments in your upcoming cases.
4) The judge notices you. If you are regularly sitting in court room when you have no other work, the judge will notice you. The judge will see if you are yawning all the time, sitting mindlessly all the time, murmuring all the time, texting messages in mobile all the time, or listening sincerely with desire to learn from the judge. This is your invaluable asset if judges forms an opinion about you that you are a sincere learner. Because most judges were first sincere learners before they were called to become judge. So, you will form a rapport with them.
5) The first 5 Senior Most Judges in any court, are power centres of any court. It has enormous value if you can set up rapport with them by sincerely listening to them by sitting in their courtrooms, when you have no other pressing work to do.
Haresh Raichura
(Lawyer, Supreme Court of India), on twitter @hareshraichura, or connect with me on LinkedIn as Haresh Raichura
Posted first on :10/12/13
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