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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun because the practice of law should be fun, and if it’s not, then something’s wrong.
[00:00:22] Scott Benton: Now today, we’re going to take a look at how to handle your first trial. How to handle your first trial.
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[00:01:17] Scott Benton: Now assuming you’re going to pursue litigation, and not everybody does. At some point in time, you’re going to end up in a courtroom, in a trial, in front of a judge, and even though you’ve seen this setting take place a million times on television, and in the movies, and I’m sure in law school, it’s completely different when you’re suddenly the attorney in the courtroom, and you’re representing your client, and it might as well be something you’ve never seen before.
[00:01:42] Scott Benton: You’re probably going to experience a lot of fear leading up to your first court appearance, and you might even have trouble sleeping because of all the anxiety that’s likely to come along with this being your first trial. You naturally think that after you get through a few trials that you’re not going to feel that way anymore, and you’ll be able to sleep without [00:02:00] any trouble after you become, more familiar with the trial process, and the courtroom, and the court personnel.
[00:02:06] Scott Benton: And keep in mind that all of this Pre trial anxiety is completely normal, and something that all litigation attorneys speak about having gone through themselves. But, even if you know all of that, when it’s your turn to go into a trial, that knowledge might not really be so helpful. But would it help to know that even attorneys who have gone through 50 trials say they still have the same experience with the fear and anxiety after all that time spent in court? The only difference is they’ve learned to use that fear energy and they lean into it so that it helps them. But, as we’re told, that same fear experience never really goes away so you have a chance to lean into it as well when you first get started.
[00:02:52] Scott Benton: Now again, knowing this information probably isn’t going to make it any more pleasant for you during your first trial, but keeping [00:03:00] that perspective in mind might give you a little bit more confidence. At least you know the other attorney is going through the exact same thing that you’re going through, even if they have more trial experience than you, because the fear never leaves.
[00:03:15] Scott Benton: In speaking to more seasoned trial attorneys and asking their advice to new attorneys in handling trials, they say to remember to breathe. Now that might sound pretty simplistic and maybe even a little unhelpful, but as they tell us, when you first get into the courtroom, your heart is racing at 200 miles per hour.
[00:03:35] Scott Benton: And you’ve got tunnel vision and you’ll be questioning why you ever went to law school in the first place. And this feeling is probably going to last for about the first 20 or 30 minutes before things really slow down. And then you’ve got like a stronger footing to feel more grounded. So you want to remember to keep breathing in a steady and controlled cadence to keep your stress levels even.
[00:03:59] Scott Benton: And [00:04:00] remember that a lot of this is that old fashioned but reliable fear of public speaking. If you’ve ever done any kind of public speaking yourself, then this is going to be very familiar to you. It’s the courtroom that will probably feel a little bit different. I’m sure you’ve probably heard many times that public speaking is the biggest fear most people have. Now, I don’t know if that’s really true. I can think of a lot worse things than public speaking. The biggest fear sounds pretty extreme, but I will admit that people do fear public speaking a lot, and it’s something most people tend to struggle with over their entire lifetime.
[00:04:35] Scott Benton: Now, as an aside, if at any point in time that you want to improve your public speaking skills, there’s an organization that has groups all around the world called Toastmasters International that you can join for a very nominal fee. It’s just not much at all. It’s not even worth mentioning. And in it, you work on many topics.
[00:04:54] Scott Benton: public speaking skills that include extemporaneous speaking, which means off the cuff or [00:05:00] spontaneous speaking and prepared speeches that you put together and deliver. For more information on Toastmasters groups that are going to meet in your area, you can go to their website, which is Toastmasters. org.
[00:05:12] Scott Benton: Now, I personally did Toastmasters for four years and I can tell you that I would highly recommend. Finding a group and getting involved and no matter what your public speaking skill level is, you’re going to get really good at public speaking. It’s going to take away a lot of the fear you’re going to have in any setting whenever your presentation skills are needed, which as an attorney, you’re more likely going to find yourself in that place more often than not. So it’s probably a really good idea to get as comfortable as you can with public speaking and really make that a priority.
[00:05:46] Scott Benton: So as far as handling your first trial goes, it’s important to remember to breathe because this is going to equalize your stress levels, which in turn is going to help you think a little more clearly.
[00:05:57] Scott Benton: There’s nothing worse than when your brain [00:06:00] shuts down, and it does that when stress levels reach a high enough point. And again, why you want to remember to breathe. It’s going to be an important tool in your toolbox for you to go to. It might even help you get to sleep the night before. Second, the more you go through trials, the more familiar it’s going to become. The fear part apparently, as we’ve learned, doesn’t go away according to people who’ve done over 50 trials, but you’re probably going to be better at leaning into those fears and using energy to empower your speaking performance as opposed to letting it shut you down.
[00:06:31] Scott Benton: You hear about famous actors who go through the same thing all the time, and maybe they’re a-list actors for decades that are world famous and they’ve acted in movies that cost upwards of more than a hundred million dollars, and maybe they’ve won all kinds of important awards, but they still talk about how much fear they experience.
[00:06:49] Scott Benton: each and every time they have to go in front of the camera. Now, hopefully that’s not your experience with all of your trials, and you’re not trying to win an Oscar here, you’re trying to win the [00:07:00] case for your client, which is a lot of hard work, but since you’re listening to this podcast episode, I know you’ve got everything you need to get through a trial with flying colors.
My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for watching this episode. If you’re finding this to be valuable information and you’d like to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website.
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And we also hope you’ll join us in the meantime of making the world a better place one client at a time. Thank you so much.
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