So, this is not a guest post by Walt Kowalski. I accept the world that we have, and I enjoy each day in it. That said ...

More and more, however, I am witnessing first-hand the decline of lawyering and advocacy in this age. My view is that we now a number of lawyers practicing who: a) did not go down this road for ideals, but rather dollars (this has been confirmed by surveys); and b) the old-school skills of conversation, in-person debate, reading, research and such have been, well, somewhat outdated by technology.  

If a person is a lawyer under 40, the chances are they grew up with a screen in their face from the time they were a child. In other words, they weren't listening to the news and even dramas on the radio at night ... with imaginations filling in the rest of the story. Okay, I didn't grow up with a ton of that. But I did grow up listening to the Astros on the radio at night (listening to the radio all the time, actually) ... I could see the plays as Gene Elston described it for me from the Astrodome.

Fundamentally, trial work is story telling. Who has the most compelling story? What are the missing parts of the plot? Which characters does the jury identify with? So, where are the great story-tellers of today? Used to be, they were trial lawyers. 

I had the great honor many years ago to have a case against the legend, Richard "Racehorce" Haynes. While he made his name and fortune as a criminal defense lawyer, our case was a small personal injury case (he represented the Plaintiff). His cross-examination of our safety director was rhythmic and spell-binding. I prayed for it to end. Mercifully, it finally did. What a privilege to watch the master in action. You think AI can do that? I don't. 

Oh, yeah ... AI. Now, even good old-fashioned lawyer-nerds are being replaced by AI. I do much of my own research, too. I use it some, but still ... there is nothing like digging into the cases and finding the nuggets that even the headnotes, and yes, even other courts miss.

We experienced this first-hand in our 2014 case of Windwood Presbyterian Church v. Presbyterian Church (USA). In that case, we represented the local church versus the national denomination in a church-property dispute. We took the position that neutral principles governed church property disputes (rather than deferring to hierarchical church rules, trusts, and such). We saw a Texas preference for neutral principles in earlier court of appeals opinions, though courts of appeal had routinely described Texas as a hierarchical deference state. The most respected church property expert in the country even told us at lunch one day that he respected our efforts, but unfortunately, we were wrong and would lose because ... Texas was a hierarchical deference state. Well, it turns out that the Texas Supreme Court took up a church property case for the first time in 100 years in Masterson v. Diocese of Northwest Texas ... incredibly while our case was on appeal in the First Court of Appeals (we lost at the trial court). And the Supremes said: We had read the case law correctly, in spite of appellate court mischaracterization. Texas was a neutral principles state, after all. So, we won our case ... 438 S.W.3d 597 if you want to check it out. AI could never have charted this course. Actually, I think God was involved, but that is another subject and beyond the scope of this post. 

How are lawyers honing resarch skills today? I am telling you by observation that there are precious few who are good at it. 

We live in a sound-bite, how many likes?, 30-second-attention-span culture. So, what to do? Put the phone down. Read, learn, converse. Live beyond the urgency of the next task and text. Get to know and understand humans. Can you ask a real question? I mean, a real one, one that involves both feeling and thought. For example, Why does this happen? What made a person think this way? Tell me more about that ... etc.. Fundamentally, develop a growth mindset. Commit to improving one's craft. 

The good news as people are standing on my lawn and posting another selfie on Instagram? The story-tellers and researchers who remain today are light years ahead.