Getting to the courthouse early matters a lot. Not on the morning of your trial — that is fundamental. Always arrive early when you are appearing before the judge.
This is something different. This is about exposing young lawyers to trial practice early in their careers. It can be extremely important to their professional development.
For me, my first trip to the courthouse came very early. My Dad was far ahead of his time when he began taking his ten-year-old daughter to the courthouse — his version, I guess, of “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.” I would ride my bike to his office and walk to the courthouse with him where “we” would file a paper or talk to the clerk of court. If we ran into the judge in the hallway for casual conversation, that was a definite plus.
Admittedly, that was not the norm at the time. But those are very vivid and treasured memories for me. I don’t think Dad was doing it with any expectation that I would follow in his footsteps as a lawyer. That role was reserved for my brother. Such were the times!
But I clearly enjoyed those outings. I knew that, as a lawyer, my dad did something important, and the courthouse was where he did it. The courthouse was a serious place, the judge was a powerful person, and the lawyers were pillars of our small town, whose jobs were to represent their clients well and to improve the community where their clients lived. Some of the stories about those experiences appear in my book, What Millennial Lawyers Want: A Bridge From the Past to the Future of Law Practice (Wolters Kluwer Aspen Select Series, 2019). You might enjoy reading them.
So when I saw an article titled “How Young Lawyers Get Trial Experience and Why It Still Matters,” it got my attention. It was not that the subject was so new or unexpected, but I found the article to be comprehensive in laying out options for young lawyers to become familiar with the trial process — to see whether it interests them and also to prepare them for the first time they might be asked to enter an appearance or to argue a motion. The courtroom is a particular place, and it is better to get familiar with it early on.
I also remembered when a young lawyer in a healthcare regulatory practice told me that he wanted to change his practice focus to trial work because he needed to “feel more like a lawyer.” I knew what he meant, and I also knew that he was not diminishing the value of corporate lawyers any more than I do. It is just a very personal thing. Being a trial lawyer did that for me, too.
That article also should be of interest to seasoned lawyers who take their roles as mentors seriously. But that is the very thing that exposes the weakness of the article. It does not say that! The emphasis in the article is on how young lawyers can get that experience themselves, and I call foul to that.
Let’s face it, most young lawyers, who are responsible for billing two thousand hours a year, are not likely to spend much time as observers in the courtroom without the idea coming from the top and endorsed by the top. That nudge needs to come from seasoned lawyers who take developing talent seriously.
Mentors are critically important to bringing these kinds of professional experiences to younger lawyers. It is folly to leave it up to young and vulnerable junior associates to figure out what they need on their own. Senior lawyers need to take time out from billing hours and developing work to “ladder down” and do something that was done for most of them. In my opinion, that something is as much of a professional responsibility as anything in the Code or the Canons.
Wherever they are, the mentors need to step up. A significant part of their value is to develop talent, and there is no excuse for shirking that responsibility, whether it is a trip to the courthouse or to hear the opening bell ring on Wall Street. Most successful lawyers can identify someone who served as a mentor for them, and young lawyers today have a right to expect equal treatment.
The article closes with the following words, “The profession still needs lawyers who can stand up, speak clearly, think on their feet, and own outcomes. Those skills don’t develop by accident. They develop because someone decided they mattered and acted accordingly.”
That someone needs to be a mentor. If that is what the author meant, the message should have been much clearer.
Here’s the article: https://abovethelaw.com/2026/01/how-young-lawyers-get-trial-experience-and-why-it-still-matters.
