First Impressions

• Author: Robert E. Shapiro
• Pages: 17-20

Published in Litigation, Volume 47, Number 1, Fall 2020. © 2020 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be

copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. 17

First Impressions

Writing Your Brief’s Introduction

ROBERT E. SHAPIRO

The author, an associate editor of Litigation, is with Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP, Chicago.

Everyone’s heard of an elevator speech. Maybe even given one.

You’ve got only 15 or 20 seconds, the time it takes for an eleva-

tor to descend between floors, to introduce yourself or start a

sales pitch or prove your expertise to someone unfamiliar with

you and what you have to offer. When your time’s up, you must

have at least drawn the interest of your interlocutor, gotten him

thinking your way, eager to talk more.

It only rarely happens in an elevator, of course. Maybe you are

in line at your building’s Starbucks and, suddenly, there next to you

is that attractive “other” who has intrigued you from a distance

for months. Or, at a cocktail party, a chance introduction to a big

potential client gives you the opportunity of a career, not to say

a lifetime, lasting only until another equally on-the-make lawyer

crowds into your space. Or, most critically, at a seemingly routine

status conference, the judge suddenly expresses doubt about your

client’s case and impatiently demands to know from you, in just a

few words, how you could possibly be litigating with a straight face.

Time’s a-wasting. Attention on you is likely to be fleeting.

Opportunity knocks, but disaster also looms. In all of these cir-

cumstances you’ve got everything to gain, and quite a bit to lose

too: a few moments will decide your fate, and you must not just

set the right tone and manner but also make your substantive case.

What do you say? It has to be something, just enough and not overly

much, that is worthwhile and effective. What is that exactly?

It is easy to say what it’s not. If you want to sell yourself, or

your expertise, you’ll make no good or lasting impression with

a chronological recitation of the pedestrian facts of your life.

Nor, at the other extreme, will it help to tout your credentials as

some kind of stud litigator. However important these facts are to

you, and even if true, neither approach is going to keep anyone’s

interest. “Hi, I’m Mike. I grew up in Kansas, went to school in

New York, and now work as a top lawyer in my firm in Chicago

where I’ve been involved in 15 tough securities cases.” You’re

doomed. “Hi, Mike,” will go the response, “nice to meet you. See

you later!!” Nor, in those all-important few seconds before your

importunate judge, do you want to start with “this is a contract

case, the amount to be paid was $15 million, but my client re-

ceived a letter, and . . .” blah, blah, blah. The judge knows all this

already. You’re getting nowhere. “Case dismissed,” you hear, and

then the coup de grace: “with prejudice.”

Stating Your Case

No, an elevator speech is your first, and maybe last, opportu-

nity to state your case, whatever it is, in a concise and engaging

way and get the ball rolling. In style, it has to show confidence

without bumptiousness, simplicity and clarity without simple-

mindedness, knowledge without pedantry. Substantively, it must