Walk the Plank

I have my first trial tomorrow. I'm working so hard to try and settle the case, but I just don't think it's going to get there today...so, tomorrow I start my first trial. And, truth be told, I don't know that I really understand what I'm doing. This is bad news for my client.

I suppose I should pony up and actually try the case. I know it better than the managing partner, I took the deposition, I attended the pre-trials, I attempted to settle it. I wanted to be a trial lawyer, and this is how you get there, I suppose.

What's holding me back is that I'm going against two men who have been in the business for more than thirty years. Now, dear reader, you must understand that I am not even thirty years old. I am twenty-six years old and going to trial for the first time. There's also a co-defense counsel, who I don't really like either. I feel like he's trying to man-handle me and push me around simply because I'm a young woman. This has also been confirmed by the managing partner on the case. The original trial strategy on this case is that I would handle all the day-to-day stuff on the file, and then, the seasoned, name partner would try the case. In a sense, we were trying to stage a coup...draw them in with my inexperience and then hit them with the big guy.

However, now I am the "big guy" and all that inferiority has come creeping up and I am left shaking in my stylish, yet affordable, heels.

I know that this is the first of many trials I will face. But...I'm scared to walk the plank.