The lessons of 30 years as a lawyer: Get the facts.

October is my 30th anniversary as a lawyer. A friend joked that she was buying me a tee shirt emblazoned with "A 30-year lawyer and only this T-shirt to show for it." I hope not. Every Monday through the end of the year, I’ll blog about the 10 things I have learned in 30 years -- often the hard way. Here is the first: Get the facts. People prefer to traffic in conclusions. Evolution wires us this way, because thinking in conclusions does not use up as much cognitive processing power as thinking factually. This made sense when trying to survive 30,000 years ago on the plains of the Serengeti but not now. Why else do people shy away from facts? As John Adams famously remarked, they are "stubborn things" that often make us uncomfortable. Finally, a thought from my mom, who told me this growing up: "There is a story on the surface and a story beneath the surface." All this means that facts are hard to dig out. Rule of thumb: It takes two to three times as long to figure them out as a lawyer generally expects. What to do, especially as a new lawyer? Take a negative, turn it to a positive. Talk about what everyone thinks but few dare to say. For example, every lawyer knows that the litigation process is a hard slog. But a witness may not. A lawyer who shares that information with a smile can build trust: "I wish I could promise you that this is the first and last time you will see me, but that is not the way the process works." Trust is the drill bit that gets the facts, on the surface and beneath.