Civil litigators need to take risks on behalf of clients

Although lawyers are often considered to be more conservative by nature, personal injury lawyer Steve Rastin says that they need to take risks on behalf of clients "” or they shouldn't be in the profession. "Some people are more interested in marketing and settling than taking a case to trial. It's law as a profession versus law as a commodity. They need to take that risk. If they don't, word is going to get out that they don't take cases to trial and that will have a detrimental impact on clients," says Rastin, managing partner of Rastin Trial Lawyers. "Even if you lose sometimes, you see the same defence lawyers, and they respect the fact that you're a good trial lawyer. Insurance companies keep lists. They know who goes to trial and who doesn't. If you're going to be a civil litigator, you have to take risks," he adds. As Rastin explains, one of the best things that happened to him as a lawyer was the experience of losing his first trial. "The sun still came up the next day. The world still went on, and my wife gave me a hug in the morning. There is life after a loss. You can't function in an adversarial system and say, 'I'm never going to lose.' Having the courage to do the right thing is part of being a professional," he says.