Resources

Women In Law – A Collaborative Approach

One of the things that I most enjoy, as I’ve been saying is the collaborative approach that we have here at Conrad Scherer and certainly working on presentations for hearings with Sylvie has been very rewarding for me because we both consider each other’s perspectives and input on PowerPoint presentations as to our in terms of being as persuasive as we can and making the most persuasive arguments we can to the court.

The firm really does take pride in its preparation for hearings, and in particular trials. I think we all work very well together as a team, in terms of our presentation to the judges. Again, back to the remote work, presentations to judges have become even more important, because all these trials, I should say, all these hearings are now conducted on Zoom. It’s been very important to have that level of preparation to convey your points to the judge in a persuasive, effective manner.

I think I really enjoy legal writing. I really love being an advocate. But I love organizing the argument. I love anticipating what the other side is going to argue and answering that argument and organizing where we’re going in the hearing. And so that’s sort of what I really enjoy about being an attorney. And that’s fun, isn’t it? I find that to be really rewarding as well.

I like planning. Well, you said it planning from A to Z in terms of what are the points that you want to hit during the hearing, and conferring with other lawyers, and the two of you and figuring out okay, well, which way is the best way we’re going to go to attack this particular argument that’s being made by the other side. And that’s something that I find particularly rewarding, where you really have this sort of aspect of working together and a collaborative approach to how we argue and prepare our arguments.

And I think that is a strength of Conrad and Scherer, they really do take a team approach in a collaborative effort. And that sets us aside from other larger firms. We are a boutique firm, and we do take a team approach. And I think that’s why we get the best result.

Janine is very thoughtful. You are very thoughtful and very mindful of the arguments that you’re making. And I think that’s why I enjoy writing. Because I really do think about the argument, think about, you know, what the opposition thinks about what the response to that is, you organize it, and that’s why I enjoy litigation, and I enjoy writing motion practice and also at the appellate level, that is, you know, a deeper dive into the issues and a lot of research, and I really do enjoy it. And I enjoy then going back and talking to the trial attorneys about what their perspective was, and yes, and what, you know, they were thinking and incorporating that.

I think your perspective is so different being at the appellate level, you know, we are kind of trial lawyers in the trenches. Right. And you experienced that work sort of in the trenches, and we think about appellate issues, and we plan for them. But really, you have a different perspective at the appellate level.

Right, at the appellate level, it’s sort of like you can see the whole picture because it’s basically everything’s happened and then it’s done. Then you can go back and, you know, drive home the points that you want and demonstrate that to the appellate court, which is what you want at the trial level and why, you know, the trial court should be affirmed. I really, really enjoyed that.