by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Trying four cases a year is considered a taxing schedule for today’s civil trial lawyer, but Jim Cobb remembers when that workload would have been considered a good week’s work.
One of the founding partners of Peek, Cobb, Edwards & Ashton, Cobb built his career on trials, hundreds of them. It’s experience that today’s young associates would find difficult to match in an era that favors mediation or settlements to litigation.
Federal courts tried about 5,000 civil cases in 2004, compared to more than 14,000 a decade earlier. The unpredictability of jury verdicts and the escalating cost of trials tends to steer firms increasingly toward settlements, said Cobb.
“You want your young attorneys to have that experience, but you could be taking a tremendous risk turning a young lawyer loose in court,” said Cobb. “You put an inexperienced lawyer in a courtroom and you could end up losing your client $60 million.”
When Cobb started practicing in 1958, attorneys weren’t so much turned loose as they were thrown to the lions. Then, it wasn’t uncommon for Cobb to try four cases a week. Days would begin with jury selection and end with a verdict.
“Then you came in the next day and did it all over again,” said Cobb.
In the following 20 years, Cobb estimates he tried more than 300 cases. That courtroom experience familiarized Cobb with the unpredictability of jury trials and honed his instincts for dealing with a jury.
There’s widespread concern that those qualities are in short supply now among young associates, said Cobb. Florida’s bar associations and law schools have looked for ways to mitigate the effects. Increased exposure to mentors and mock trial teams is helpful, said Cobb. But it’s no substitute for real world litigation.
“Mock trials can be effective preparation,” he said. “But the difference is, everybody knows it’s not real. There’s no way to prepare for that feeling that everything you say or do could effect the outcome for your clients.”
Cobb offers as much of his experience as he can to his firm’s young attorneys. Aside from mentoring from the partners, the firm’s attorneys are encouraged to find trial experience through pro bono work. The firm also tries to hire attorneys who have already cut their teeth on the more trial-prolific criminal side of the bar.
“Almost everybody we hire comes from the State Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office,” he said. “It’s a different kind of litigation, but at least they know their way around a courtroom. They’ve picked a jury and they’ve seen how they react to different things.”
The opportunity to rack up courtroom time can be an asset to cash-strapped organizations like the SAO, Public Defender and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid when it comes to recruiting.
The promise of trial experience can make a $40,000 starting salary seem palatable to top law school grads. Christa Figgins, who coordinates fundraising and pro bono services for JALA, remembers her start practicing family law for the organization.
“I went from law school to the courtroom in a week or two,” said Figgins.
At a one-year reunion with law school friends, Figgins realized she had an advantage in trial experience and in storytelling over her friends pursuing corporate law.
“I was talking about how much time I was spending in court, and a friend of mine said how the partners at his firm had to point out the courthouse to him as they drove by,” she said. “He had never been inside.”