As any trial lawyer will tell you, litigation requires perspective, persistence and a little bit of poker. Although strategy and legal skill matter, few cases are perfect, so lawyers learn to play the cards they’re dealt.
Every case involves a handful of big decisions and countless small ones. Daily developments — not always apparent from the case file — alter the legal landscape; the lawyer must therefore be prepared to shift strategies, even if it means charting an entirely new course. Scrutinizing a lawyer’s litigation decisions is thus a bit like analyzing a gambler’s decision to fold — you can’t really appreciate why he did it until you see the cards he was holding.
