Gentle Slumber

As you all know, this Christmas season just past was a stressful one here in the Trenches.  The drama of the holidays did not resolve to any acceptable degree until yesterday.  Last night, I had my first night of uninterrupted sleep in two weeks.  Contrary to popular belief, a lot of lawyers do lose sleep over their clients.  We worry that they will do something stupid not smart.  We worry that they won't do what we've instructed them to do.  We worry about what will happen when we get to court with them.  We worry about the evidence the other side might present.  We worry that our arguments in our clients' favor won't be eloquent or forceful enough.  OK, we just plain worry.  A lot of time, we worry more than our clients.  That's probably because we understand the complexities of the legal process and the capriciousness of judicial decision-making.  We instruct our clients in the shadow of that knowledge.  Unfortunately, we also know, human nature being what it is, that there are a good number of our clients who will not heed our advice.  We know who some of them are, and that there will be others who surprise us.  And so we worry, and lose sleep.