Here's a question for all my lawyers out
there -- if you were to receive the biggest
case of your life (you know the one that
would change everything),
would you feel comfortable taking it to
trial? Let's say tomorrow... Now if you
maybe hesitate or you have a little bit
of fear and anxiety with that, don't
worry you're not alone. *Intro * Hi, my name is Jarrett Stone. I'm the founder of Law
Venture and I'm the owner of TexasClassActionLawyer.com. And I have to say,
I've had to answer this question a
number of times during the course of my
career. In fact I've had to answer this
question even before my career as a
lawyer even began -- way back to whenever I was interning at a prosecutor's office
as a law student. I vividly remember the
moment when the head-honcho prosecutor
came up to me and she said, "Hey, Jarrett. I know you have all this trial-ad
experience. You've done competitions. I
know you want to be in the courtroom.
Well in two days I have a trial and
I'm going to give it to you if you want it.
It's yours if you want it. Just let me
know!" And I remember had a
thousand thoughts that crossed my mind
at that point. A lot of it was anxiety
and fear based. But, I specifically
remember thinking, "okay if I can do this. If I can,
you know, really pull this off,
that's gonna put me miles ahead of the
competition when it comes to time to get
a job." In fact, I was told at the
prosecutor's office if I were to really
nail this trial and win it I would have
a job lined up so not only did that add
to the pressure but it really came down
to that single moment was I comfortable
going to court going to trial in two
days based on the trial at experience in
the foundation that I had I said yes I
basically put the fear aside as best as
I could ended up winning and then
ultimately that's really propelled me as
a lawyer because I immediately caught
the trial bug I loved it I loved the
competition behind it which is totally
ironic because I'm a very introverted
type of person actually being a trial
lawyer and being in the courtroom
exhausts me it I mean whenever I get
home I'm exhausted but at the same time
I love it and that's because ironically
I'm very competitive so I like to go
head-to-head against the other side I
like to
argue and try and convince a jury to
rule in my clients favor it's just fun I
have an absolute blast but at the same
time it exhausts me so this isn't a
natural skill set that I have but it's
something I've had to develop over the
years in fact I've received coaching and
trainings from advocacy coaches from
judges prosecutors family law lawyers
civil litigators and just good
old-fashioned experience and over the
years I've developed a style that plays
to my strengths but the only way to get
to this point was to have a solid
foundation and trial advocacy without
that I wouldn't be where I am today
which is I'm handling cases that are
worth over a million dollars or
somewhere are worth over a hundred
million dollars I've been able to get to
this point in a very very short amount
of time
and that's mainly due to the fact that I
am not shy when it comes to taking big
cases but I've also realized is the more
comfortable you are in the courtroom the
more you're able to attract bigger cases
more complicated cases they may not be a
million dollars plus they may be family
law they may be criminal cases but what
I've learned over the years is that
people don't want to go to the courtroom
they are actually terrified to go to the
courtroom this isn't surprising given
that I don't know one to three percent
of cases actually go to trial now over
the years that means that trial lawyers
are essentially becoming a dying breed
but if you end up having a strong
foundation and trial advocacy that's a
good thing because these skills are
becoming increasingly more rare yes some
people may be able to step foot in the
courthouse but are they able to command
the courtroom odds are most likely not
but this is why the lawyers with a
strong trial advocacy background are
able to achieve things at a much faster
rate my biggest pet peeve in the legal
industry hands down is this mentality
which I used to have that a lawyer needs
to have a certain amount of trial
experience or maybe a certain amount of
years of experience under the belt
before they can handle bigger cases
that's just not how the world works if I
were to get a call about a wrongful
death
case if I were to sign up a class action
case I'm not gonna turn it away because
it's too big I'm not gonna say hey uh
you may I'll take it I'll represent you
but you're just not gonna get the best
representation in the courtroom because
I need to have 12 more trials under my
belt then I'll be at that point in
reality that's just that's just not how
it works if you can try one case you can
try a hundred cases yeah there may be a
little bit of a difference in your
skills increasing over those one to a
hundred trials but that growth is just
gonna be extremely small compared to
having that strong foundation if you
have that strong trial add foundation
your growth is gonna be exponential and
that way tomorrow you can take that big
case or let's say you're at a job
interview you sit down and your future
employer says hey look I have a trial
docket can you take it are you
comfortable in the courtroom you don't
have that foundation it's gonna be
written you're not gonna become filled
in the courtroom and you probably
shouldn't take that job but at the same
time if you are comfortable then it's
like yeah let's do it let's knock it out
that makes you more valuable as a lawyer
and that's something I can't stress
enough is you need to have that
foundation because with that foundation
you can just propel yourself in your
legal career so given my own personal
experiences I really want to help those
who don't have trial ad experience I
want to give them that foundation so
I've decided to put an online course
together I'm calling it trial at Academy
courtroom mastery and it's an online
course devoted to building your trial
advocacy skills and with trial at
Academy I'll take you through every
single step of trial we'll start with
the end in mind because truthfully a lot
of successful trials are kind of like a
GPS because you have to start with your
destination in order to know how to get
there and so that's what we'll do and
then the next step it will be jury
selection and I'll take you through
every phase leading up to you just
having this amazing closing argument so
with this I'm super pumped and I'm super
excited to show you everything trial ad
Academy has to offer so don't forget to
click the button to enroll and once you
do I'll see you on the other side
