Do they trust you? When an early-career lawyer can answer “yes” to that question, they’ve developed a critical skill necessary for success.
The importance of gaining another’s trust begins with your supervising attorney and extends throughout a case up to that all-important need for the jury to trust you in order to prevail at trial.
First, earn the trust of your supervising attorney or boss.
Your boss will not fully invest in you or want to take risks by giving you important projects until they trust you.1 Research has shown that there are two main goals you must achieve to gain your supervisor’s trust: (1) demonstrate your competence and (2) prove that you have integrity.2,3
Competence is possessing the skills and knowledge to perform the necessary tasks.4,5 Hopefully you arrive your first day on the job with good research and writing skills and an understanding of how the legal system works. Be ready to demonstrate this to your boss. Be ready to respond to any inquiry they have by finding out the answer and providing that information to them. Accept any opportunity to demonstrate that you have what it takes to do this job. Trust built upon competent performance builds quickly.6
Integrity is character, but it means even more: honesty, efficiency and reliability.7 Demonstrate to your supervisor that they can count on you: show them that you complete your work in a timely manner, that you never fudge on the facts or the law, and that you represent your firm professionally. Research has shown that demonstrating this type of integrity has the greatest impact on the development of your boss’s trust in you.8
What if you make a mistake? What if your boss points out where you got a fact wrong? Or you forgot to turn off your phone and it rang in Court? Acknowledge your error, own it, and apologize. Then start over to regain their trust, having learned from your mistake.
Earn the trust of your client.
You need your client to provide you with honest information. You need your client to feel comfortable following your advice. This can only happen if your client trusts you. That does not happen automatically: you need to earn it.
How?
You must develop a relationship with your client.9 You need to be the person they can call and confide in.10 You need to be there for them. Your loyalty and devotion to your client enables the client to trust you and have confidence in you.11 Take their phone calls. Answer all of their questions respectfully. When you are developing your case, when you are heading into depositions, and especially when you are going to trial, your work developing this relationship with your client will pay off. The jury will sense whether you and your client have a trusting relationship, which will impact their perception of your case.12
Earn the trust of your experts.
You want your experts to provide timely opinions based on the facts of the case and their expertise. You want your experts to clearly communicate to the jury at trial.
How do you get that?
Communication and respect are the keys to gaining the expert’s trust.13 You need to provide the expert with sufficient records and information,14 and a list of questions to which you request answers. You need to ensure that they can contact you with any questions or concerns. Don’t leave the expert in the dark about any difficult or negative facts of the case. Be sure the expert is aware of deadlines; don’t ever leave them unaware of what you expect from them and when you need it to be ready.15,16 Spend time prepping them before their trial testimony: respect their expertise as to the opinions they will express but guide them as to how to say it so the jury will understand them and believe them.17
Earn the trust of the judge.
Respect and politeness go a long way to earning the trust of your judge.18 Don’t waste their time.19 Be organized; know the law and the facts.20 Don’t make them angry.21
The judge is an impartial arbiter of the law, but it helps to have them like you and trust you.
Earn the trust of the jury to win at trial.
Your main job as a trial lawyer is to persuade the jury.22 You need the jury to trust that you are telling them the truth and not misleading them.23 You need to be candid with them: be careful to not over-promise in your opening.24 Keys to earning the jury’s trust include: make eye contact; speak plainly without talking down to them; avoid legal jargon; acknowledge any deficiencies in the case; and resolve any questions they likely have.25
Be cognizant that the jury will sense if you don’t believe in your case or in your client—if you don’t, the jury might not believe what you say.26
An early-career lawyer has lots of work to do. Keep in mind that the practice of law requires interpersonal skills such as the ability to earn the trust of critical partners in your pursuit of success.
[1] Katarzyna Krot & Dagmara Lewicka, The Importance of Trust in Manager-Employee Relationships, 10 Int. J. Electron. Bus. Manag. 224, 224-25 (2012).
[2] Id. at 226.
[3] Michelle C. Bligh, Leadership and Trust, in Leadership Today 21, 23 (J. Marques & S. Dhiman eds, 2017).
[4] Id.
[5] Shay S. Tzafrir & Simon L. Dolan, Trust Me: A Scale for Measuring Manager-Employee Trust, 2 Manag, Res. 115, 118 (2004).
[6] Krot, supra at 226.
[7] Id. at 230.
[8] Id.
[9] David Berg, The Trial Lawyer, 31 Litig. 8, 9 (2005).
[10] Lindsay R. Goldstein, A View from the Bench: Why Judges Fail to Protect Trust and Confidence in the Lawyer-Client Relationship–An Analysis and Proposal for Reform, 73 Fordham L. Rev. 2665, 2668-70 (2005).
[11] In re Dunn, 98 N.E. 914, 915 (N.Y. 1912).
[12] Berg, supra at 9.
[13] Round Table Group, Expert Witness Tips: Building Communication & Trust with Attorney, LinkedIn (Oct. 4, 2023), https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/expert-witness-tips-building-communication-trust-attorney/.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Stephen J. Anderer, Working with Your Expert Witness, 23 Fam. Advoc, 20, 22 (2000), https://www.jstor.org/stable/25806230.
[17] Robert F. Hanley, Confessions of an Expert Witness, 8 Litig. 3 (1982).
[18] Michael H. Simon, Things That I Learned During My First Year on the Bench That I Wish I Had Known as a Trial Lawyer, 24 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 345, 346 (2013).
[19] Id. at 348.
[20] Id. at 348-49.
[21] Tara Trask & Ryan Malphurs, “Don’t Poke Scalia!”: Lessons for Trial Lawyers from the Nation’s Highest Court, 21 Jury Expert 46 (2009).
[22] Berg, supra note 9, at 8.
[23] Id. at 8-9.
[24] Id. at 13.
[25] Trask, supra at 48-49.
[26] Berg, supra note 9, at 9, 14.
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