“As A Good Trial Attorney, You Always Must Have a Backup Plan”

I stood at the podium in front of my computer and looked out at the 400 or so people assembled to honor the 15th annual SFTLA Trial Lawyer of the Year nominees. Seconds earlier, the video presentation of the award nominees that Cogent Legal had produced—a 20-minute video I had spent many hours working on—stopped working and cut to a blue screen midway through its airing, with all the guests in attendance watching.

Though inwardly my pulse was racing, I calmly and with a smile on my face told the assembled audience: “As a good trial attorney, you always must have a backup plan.” That got a good laugh, and I quickly proceeded to get a backup of the video playing. The presentation continued and was well-received in spite of that glitch.

I’ll give more detail in a bit on the technical difficulties that led to me standing in the glow of the spotlight, but that moment really reminded me of why we honor great trial attorneys like all the nominees at the event last night. (more…)