Judge Michael W. Mosman of the Federal District Court of Oregon spoke to a gathering of students at Lewis and Clark Law School on March 31, 2004. He spoke on avoiding ethical pitfalls as young attorneys, and shared the following bits of advice with us:

• The life of a lawyer is experience—push to get those experiences as early in your career as you can.

• Your reputation as an attorney takes a long time to create, but a short time to ruin. Mistakes won’t necessarily harm your reputation, but cutting corners or engaging in misconduct will. Work hard to gain a good reputation; work harder not to lose it.

• Use “class” in your work as a lawyer. The answer to the question, “Can I be a decent human being and still be a successful lawyer?” is ultimately not important. You have to make a choice as to what is more important to you, and then follow through.

• “Forceful decency” has a power of its own as an attorney. This doesn’t mean you should be spineless (far from it, in fact), but there is a definite power in being decent. Juries, especially, will come to respect that aspect of your personality.

• Don’t be “hyper-precise” in your speech and writing once you leave law school. Rediscover the English language, and remember to simplify your ideas.

• Winning an argument is not the same thing as being right. You won’t be a big hit with your spouse or friends if you are able to poke holes in their arguments when you are indestructible. Thinking like a lawyer is a tool, not a philosophy. Remember to separate being a lawyer from being a human being.

• If you want to make a ton of money, work all the time. If having weekends and evenings off is more important to you, you can arrive at work earlier in the morning. Above all, don’t take your work home with you at night if you can help it. Put a ceiling on the work you do as a lawyer. Judge Mosman never felt he was entirely prepared for a trial, since family obligations were important to him, too. It’s all a matter of prioritizing what is most important to you.

• Learn to understand and emphasize the important parts of your case. If you can’t state your argument in a simple heading, maybe you don’t understand it clearly enough and should rework it.