You're Fired - What is Advocacy?

No, this is not an episode of "The Apprentice."  Today I was fired by a client.  Not just any client.  A client whose case I had positioned perfectly for him to get everything he wanted.  And he fired me.  Why? Because although I had maneuvered and finagled his case perfectly, so that trying his case would be a cake walk, he had no appreciation for the skill involved in that.  His perception was that unless that his attorney acted like a rabid dog, she wasn't really advocating for him.  If you talked to all the professionals in this case, and there are a lot of them, they would all agree I'd done a wonderful job of advocating for my client, but the most important person for my continued employment, my client, did not.  It's not because he didn't want me to be effective, or that he didn't want to win his case.  It's because he had no understanding of what it means to be an effective advocate.  His only model is what he sees on TV and in movies, and frankly, good advocacy rarely makes good drama in the same way ferocious litigation does.
So, what does it mean to be an effective advocate?  It means, first and foremost, really knowing the law and what the court can and can't do.  Second, it means knowing your court and how the judges apply the law.  Third, it means really understanding the facts, all of the facts, of your case.  Fourth, it means cultivating relationships with other professionals over time, so that when you bring the facts to their attention, they find what you say to be credible.  Fifth, it means ensuring that the right people are presented the right facts at the right time.  Sometimes, the right time is in court, but usually the right time is way before you enter the courtroom.  If this were a game, it would be chess, not boxing - not as exciting as throwing punches,  the skill involved isn't as readily observable, but it requires at least as much expertise, if not more.