📅 Lawyers Spend Innumerable Hours Preparing for Events That Often Don’t Take Place

Lawyers spend a lot of time preparing for events that never happen—court hearings that get canceled or repeatedly delayed, business transactions that never close, estate plans that are drafted but never signed.  The list is endless.

I have, for example, a trial scheduled next week.  I’m aware of at least three other trials scheduled on the same day in the same court.  There is only one judge and one trial courtroom in the courthouse.  Clearly, at least one or two of the lawyers will have their trial(s) rescheduled.  Those lawyers will have spent days or possibly weeks preparing for nothing.

Similarly, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prepared a five to ten minute argument for the court, only to be cut off within seconds by the judge who has his own thoughts and opinions to pontificate.

Preparing for nothing is one of the most frustrating aspects of the legal profession and it begins the moment you enter law school.  Students are assigned more reading than they can complete adequately.  They attend class and, according to the Socratic Method, just one of the 50+ students in the room is called on and questioned about the reading assignment.  The person in the hot seat will, of course, be thankful if he prepared.  But his remaining classmates may feel that they spent a few hours of their over-taxed time preparing for nothing. 

“But what about the exam?” you might ask.   The first and final grade for most law school courses is determined by a single exam given at the end of the semester.  To prepare for these exams, most students attempt to review and retain everything they’ve learned during the four-months of classes.  Then, in a fashion characteristic to law school, you’ll be tested on only a portion of that material.

I personally believe that some of the burnout and stress associated with the legal profession is due to the frequent need to prepare (sometimes for dozens of hours) for events that never amount to anything.  And, if you’re considering a career as a lawyer, you should anticipate and accept the fact that much of the preparation that you do will be for naught.