I had the pleasure of attending the Toronto Lawyers Association’s Family and Estates Mentorship program launch last Thursday.  It was a great opportunity to meet mentees who are new to profession, and to catch up with colleagues and mentors of my own. 

The book prize at the event was a copy of The Civil Courtroom, professionalism to build rapport by John Hollander (Irwin Law).  It is a book within Irwin Law’s Young Advocates series that I found to be more insightful today than I may have as a first year lawyer. 

The book starts with a fantastic foreword by Thomas A Cromwell, which is well worth a read in and of itself.  However, it was the introduction that struck me the most.  The title of the introduction is “As a Lawyer, You are Not the Centre of the world”, and it is about considering the perspective of others in the course of one’s practice.  While it may be obvious to start with the perspective of judges, I was reminded by my recent post, earlier this week, of the perspective of court staff in an under resourced landscape.  Then there are the perspectives of clients, witnesses, other counsel, other parties, and the public at large.

Later on, Chapter One’s headings are “Rapport”, “Civility”, “Be Yourself”, and “Think of Others” which took me years to realize are the tools of the trade but only thirty seconds to digest from the index.  Building one’s rapport with others is an exercise in building trust.  Being civil is the act of being professional.  Being oneself is a much easier path in doing something new for the first time.  Thinking of others leads to efficiency because certainly if only one thing is true, its that no man is an island where litigation is concerned. 

There are many, many tips and tricks in this book and I encourage everyone to get a copy of it here:

https://irwinlaw.com/product/the-civil-courtroom/

Thanks for reading.

Doreen So