IN PRAISE OF TRIAL LAWYERS
Trial & Litigation Section
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To you, the members of
this Section, who give all
of us a “good name”…
thank you for all you do.
M
ichael Tigar,
the highly skilled
and effective trial
lawyer (and law
professor and author), has written
that we are in danger of losing our
way — to the courthouse, to justice
and to principles of living that
sustain us. To stay on the right
path, or to find our way back, Mr.
Tigar advocates for nine principles
of action that are needed in
litigation (whichever side you’re
representing) — and also in life.
Those principles are: Courage,
Rapport, Healthy Skepticism,
Observation, Preparation,
Structure, Candor, Empowerment,
and Thoughtful Presentation.
These are thoughtful principles
that we can (and should) follow
in our busy, stressful law practices,
and in our daily lives. In our local
legal community, we have an
abundance of exceptional trial
practitioners who clearly adhere
to these principles, whether overtly
or as a matter of (usually) quiet
daily effective practice. We should
take a moment to praise them
and thank them for all that they
do on a daily basis to represent
their clients, while being actively
involved in this Section and our
Tampa Bay community.
Our public defenders, Federal
Defender Donna Elm and Thirteenth
Judicial Circuit Defender Julianne
Holt and their respective skilled
!!
teams of highly effective and
diligent trial lawyers, protect all of
our rights by defending their clients.
They defend those who are not
guilty, those who are guilty, and
those who are, simply, just presumed
guilty. They sometimes defend
those who some in the community
may think are undeserving of
representation (because some in our
community don’t fully appreciate
what makes our country and legal
system so unique and why our legal
system is the envy of the world).
They and their teams do it with
skill, class, hard work, and focused
determination. Daily. They are not
compensated nearly well enough
for it, and we should be grateful
to them every day for their skill
and commitment.
Likewise, our local prosecutors,
United States Attorney Maria Chapa
Lopez and Thirteenth Circuit State
Attorney Andrew Warren, have
assembled an incredible team
of exceptional trial lawyers who
endeavor on a daily basis to protect
our community. Like our public
defenders, they seek justice daily
and bring a high level of skill,
preparation, and ethical practice
to the courtroom every time they
appear. We should all be grateful
for the fine work they do.
Our private criminal defense
bar has many exceptionally skilled
lawyers who are “in the trenches”
daily effectively advocating for their
clients. Most of them have been
active members of this Section and
have given their time and talent
to better our profession. While
effectively representing their clients,
they give their time to prepare for
and present at seminars and CLE’s
to teach younger trial lawyers, they
mentor younger lawyers, and they,
in their own quiet, effective way,
lead by example. To name but
a few who have led this Section
while effectively representing clients
you need look no further than
the current chair of the Section,
Katherine Yanes, who has over
the past ten years taken on every
important leadership role in our
legal community while practicing
at the highest level. Her law
partner, Jim Felman, who, in
addition to being a nationally
recognized criminal trial lawyer
and expert on federal sentencing
law, has been active at the highest
leadership levels in our local state
and federal legal community. Also,
former United States Attorney
(and Phelps Dunbar partner)
Brian Albritton and many others
(you know who they are).
We are also fortunate to have
incredibly skilled and effective
trial lawyers on both the civil
defense and plaintiff ’s side in our
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