Trial Lawyer Resilience and “Boys In The Boat”

This is my take on how a trial lawyer is like a Pocock cedar racing shell. James Daniel Brown, In Boys In The Boat (Viking 2013), discusses George Pocock, a master shell builder in the 1920s and 30s. Brown writes about Pocock’s discovery of cedar as the ultimate wood for a racing shell; with the result being “the boat as a whole [is] under subtle but continual tension caused by the unreleased compression in the skin, something like a drawn bow waiting to be released.”

“To Pocock, this unflagging resilience-this readiness to bounce back, to keep coming, to persist in the face of resistance was the magic in cedar.” This unseen force imparts life into the shell. “As far as Pocock is concerned a shell that does not have this “life” in it is unworthy. Id. at 139.

This passage rings true of the worthiness of a trial lawyer. The trial lawyer is under a subtle but continual tension in trial-like a drawn bow. The trial lawyer must have unflagging resilience- a readiness to keep coming especially in the face of resistance. This is the unseen make up of a trial lawyer. With this make up the trial lawyer is worthy of the responsibility of representing an injured person against the resistance of the insurance industry.

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