After three miserable years as a “litigator” with Windstrom & Crusher, Ernie Romero decided it was high time to quit the firm and hang out his own shingle—despite the state of the economy and his lack of any serious courtroom experience.

But within a few weeks of being on his own, lightning struck. Ernie suddenly found himself representing a young motorcyclist who had lost his right leg in a collision with a semitruck that had crossed over the centerline of a four-lane highway.

Ernie filed the case and promptly started following a careful discovery plan. He also immersed himself in books, articles and video demonstrations on trial techniques, and he sat in on as many civil trials at the courthouse as he could find time for.

Then, less than a month before his case was scheduled for trial, Ernie came to Angus for help with his trial techniques.

Holding court in the firm’s library, Angus was the judge and I was the jury for Ernie’s opening statement. At the end of an interesting 20-minute presentation, Angus said, “Ernie, we’ve got a lot to talk about, but first I have a compliment. You didn’t sound like a lawyer. You didn’t use any legalese. You came across like a thoughtful person who cares about what happened to his client.”

“Thanks,” said Ernie. “Three years of listening to insufferable legal pomposity at the most arrogant firm in town cured me of how I learned to talk in law school. I’m sold—legalese is no way to talk to anybody, including judges, juries and clients. Besides, I got a refresher course on plain language from you and Judge Standwell at one of your programs last year.”

Angus smiled and said, “OK, Ernie, let’s get down to work. While I have a good picture of what happened, my problem is that your opening statement suffers from a serious overdose of greed.”

“Greed!” said Ernie. “What are you talking about? I was just following the examples of those big-time trial lawyers whose articles, videos and trial transcripts I’ve been studying for the past year.”