Trial Magazine

“A law professor once told me: ‘He who frames the issue, wins.’”
Richard M. Breen, Richard Breen Law Offices, Louisville, KY


“A lesson that’s stuck with me in law and in life is: ‘If your logic is sound, but the answer is absurd, go back and check the premise.’ Often we’re faced with outrageous positions we have difficulty refuting because the reasoning is logical—but the problem is that our opponent has started from an unreasonable place.”
Amy C. Wallace, Hallberg Law, St. Paul, MN


“My torts professor advised, ‘Remember, litigation is like playing cards. You must play with the cards you are dealt, and you cannot change the deck!’”
Patrick Mangan, Bramnick, Rodriguez, Grabas, Arnold & Mangan, Scotch Plains, NJ


“‘You are only as good as the case you didn’t take’—the cases you decline because of the yellow flags and warnings. I did not understand this in law school but completely get it now.”
Christina E. Unkel, Maglio Christopher & Toale, Sarasota, FL


“My admiralty professor said, ‘Never say “never” and hardly ever say “always.”’ Boy, has that proven true over 32 years of legal practice.”
Tom Copeland, Law Office of Tom Copeland, Gainesville, FL


“During my last class of law school, my trial advocacy professor—a former state appellate judge—asked everyone what they had learned. I said that I had learned to never let the law get in the way of what was right or wrong. He smiled and said I was absolutely correct.”
Martin J. Cirkiel, Cirkiel & Associates, Round Rock, TX


“I was writing my advanced legal research and writing paper in poverty law during a very stressful semester. During a meeting with my professor, I complained that I didn’t know how I was going to get everything done. He asked me, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ Perplexed, I said, ‘I have no idea.’ To which he responded, ‘Just like you eat everything else: one bite at a time.’ Now, that’s how I approach practicing in mass torts, especially when things get hectic—one bite at a time.”
Laurel Li Harris, Porter & Malouf, Jackson, MS


“When someone in my first-year torts class didn’t know an answer, our professor would ask, ‘What would your mother say?’ His point was that (in most cases) the law is intuitive and makes sense. Any time I don’t know the answer to a question, I ask myself what my mother would say. Most of the time, that turns out to be right.”
John S. Friend, Bishop Korus Friend, Louisville, KY