Katherine Mae B.

Cambel February 11, 2020

Practice Court II 4th Year – STM College of Law

To be a trial lawyer is a book written by F. Bailey which seeks to lay

foundation on how to become, not only a successful trial lawyer, a trial lawyer
who seeks to serve the interest of justice. As a reader of the book, I could
say that the author has firmly established the foundation on how to become
a successful trial lawyer by discussing first the very minute details about the
field in the legal profession up to the most important points that a trial lawyer
must take note in order to serve the interest of his client as well as the interest
of justice. By such method, even if the book was written in the year 1994, the
topics and discussions made by the author are still relevant and applicable
up until today as it provides basic tactics which could be useful to every
student who pursue the study of law and even to lawyers who seek to
sharpen their skills in trial.

As I finished reading the book, one of the things that I learned is that a
successful trial lawyer must have a flexible memory. It refers not only the
ability to memorize, but also the ability to recognize things and to fully
understand them. As what the author said in his book, the ability of a trial
lawyer to have a strong and flexible memory is important for a lot of reasons.
For without such strong and flexible memory, the ability to articulate is very
limited. As in the trial, when an opponent says that they object to a question
that a lawyer has asked, the rules of evidence are of little value unless the
lawyer have them firmly in his memory. In practice, a lawyer is not given
enough time by the judge to scan his notes during trial, as such a good trial
lawyer must have engraved into his head and into his heart the rules that
even without looking into his notes or books, he can easily recall what laws
and rules are applicable. Such flexible memory, however, cannot be
obtained overnight. A good trial lawyer achieves a flexible memory by
reading the laws and rules over and over again. Thus, a flexible and strong
memory is a necessity for a good trial lawyer.
 Another thing that I have learned is that a successful trial lawyer does
not solely depend on their knowledge and ability to master the law and rules
of trial, such knowledge must be accompanied by hard work. The mastery of
law and of the rules is meaningless if a lawyer is not well prepared for the
trial. The author of the book cited Edward Bennet Williams, who was said to
be one of America’s greatest trial lawyers, who was commended by his
admirers as a lawyer to “pull a rabbit out of a hat”, to which he responded
that “To have any chance at all of pulling a rabbit out of a hat in trial, you
have to come to court armed with fifty rabbits, fifty hats, and a lot of luck”.
Such statement struck me the most as most of the people perceive lawyers
as people who are only good in memorizing the law and people who earn
money easily just by signing any document or by appearing shortly in court.
Little did most of those people knew that the legal profession, like any other
profession or more than any other profession, involves a lot of hard work.
What the people see as the work of a lawyer is only the tip of the iceberg as
what the author described it to be. A good lawyer or a trial lawyer in particular,
must prepare for his case thoroughly before he appears in court as to serve
the best interest of his client and to help in the administration of justice. A
good trial lawyer must be a good investigator in order for him to unfold the
true story as to why the conflict sprung between parties which eventually lead
to the filing of the case. Thus, by being a good investigator, the lawyer is
enabled to collect facts that are helpful to the case which would eventually
serve the interest of his client as well as the administration of justice.
Collecting facts to the case was one of the most exhausting part in the
preparation for trial as the lawyers may encounter difficulties in finding
witnesses or ascertaining whether the perception of such witnesses is
correct or not. After that stage, the lawyer is faced with yet another obstacle,
as he is bound to connect the collected facts to facts of the case which would
support the interest of his client. However, such is not only the fact that he
must take into consideration as he must also consider if whether such facts
also serve the administration of justice. Truly, lawyer undergoes a lot of
preparation before he can appear in court for trial.

The last thing that I have learned or what have lasted on my impression
after reading the book is the importance of the skill on cross examination of
a trial lawyer. As the author stated in the book, the ability to cross-examine
will be the largest weapon in the arsenal of a trial lawyer, even larger than
his ability to speak fluently and persuasively without notes. The skill in cross-
examining a witness does not comes easily as one should practice it
thoroughly before a lawyer can say that he has indeed mastered it. The
author provided for guidelines as to help the readers on what should be
considered in cross-examining a witness, among those things are: control of
the witness; speed of questioning; memory of the trial lawyer of the plethora
of facts of the case; precise articulation of questions by the trial lawyer; that
such questions asked are connected logically to the case; timing of asking
the right question; the manner of how the question is asked; and how should
the questioning of the witness be terminated. All in all, the skill of cross-
examining a witness requires a lot of experience as well as logical thinking
in order for the trial lawyer to get testimonies that are favorable to the interest
of his client.

Over all, the book is very helpful to all law students especially to those
who wanted to pursue their career in private practice. The author has
managed to elaborate important points in a very simple and relatable manner
to the readers. Although there are other things that I have learned in the
book, I think those three points are the most important thing that I have
learned among all of them as they are the most basic skill that every trial
must possess and they are also applicable in our judicial system in the
Philippines.