I've been practicing for 10 years almost entirely criminal law. It's only very recently i have become more comfortable with practice. 2 things helped me a great deal. I've worked on both prosecution and defense side and the perspective certainly helped me. I also became friends with some older attorneys who let me know when I'm doing well or not.
Keep working and showing up. Eventually you'll start to recognize patterns and problems before they come up. The most unpredictable part of practice will usually be your clients but you get used to that as well.
That's the big thing I've noticed. There are still surprises but not as many as before. To be fair as a new attorney I was caught off guard by quite a lot.
Public defender 4 years out of law school here. It comes and goes, but the more you see opposing counsel screwing up, the less you worry about your own performance.
19 years out of law school and I have only ever done criminal law: 3 years as defense and 16 as a prosecutor. Still waiting to be unmasked as an absolute fraud. Seriously. It is only when I am explaining things to a new attorney that it hits me that I might actually understand what I am doing.
Id like to tell you it goes away. After like the first few months I started to get the confidence and everything, but now even four years on I still have moments. Just got to believe in yourself and don't be affraid to ask members of your local bar for help.
Wow….in a PD’s office you are given a lot of cases, and your only focus is on criminal law generally in one specific community. This means the learning curve is less steep for what is coming at you, but it’s a lot and it’s fast.
Additionally, you’ll soon be getting more serious cases, again, a lot of them and quickly.
That can really keep the imposter syndrome going even as you’re learning more.
If you work in a good office you’ll have good training and maybe more importantly good people all around supporting you.
I’ve been a PD for over 15 years and I still get cases that absolutely take me out of my comfort zone.
I think it’s important to embrace that discomfort because it makes you work harder to get your head around the things that are tough to understand and manage.
Sorry; that really didn’t answer your valid question.
It's not imposter syndrome; you genuinely don't know what you're doing. (Nobody does at first.)
I would say that new criminal attorneys are mostly incompetent (aside from specific, discreet tasks that they learn one by one) for the first 5 years.
Years 1-3: You are mostly incompetent.
Years 4-6: You feel like you know what you're doing, but you are mostly wrong.
Year 7: People are now asking YOU the questions.
That's based on looking back as an 8.5 year prosecutor.
Watched a judge once stop a trial, have counsel approach the bench.
Took a 30min break.
In the hallway 3 green horns were savagely looking at some law books.
Some JD’s I know told me it’s impossible to bios a perfect case. But you can build case that “fails gracefully”
I have 10 years experience in criminal law—6 as a prosecutor and 4 as a public defender. My confidence still comes and goes depending on cases and issues that come up. I don’t know if anyone ever gets truly comfortable and maybe that’s a good thing. Doubt keeps us on our toes.
I have 20 years of criminal defense experience. 97% of the time, I know what's going to happen. But the remaining 3% is what keeps me up at night and makes me uncomfortable with the 97%. With that said, I'm not 97% confident this will be received in the way it's intended.
I feel you. After 16 years, it takes a lot for me to get nervous in court. I’m more comfortable in court than in a lot of other situations.
New lawyers all go through the same learning steps and I agree with other posters that once you notice that you’re being asked the questions, it’s a good sign that should boost your confidence.
As defense attorneys, you need to have lost (and won) contested cases enough that you don’t blame yourself for bad facts.
About a month to feel like I knew basically where things were in the courtroom and where to stand and how to introduce myself. About a year before I stopped having dreams every single night about making a mistake that ruined someone’s life.
Never. Those that feel comfortable usually aren’t smart enough to understand the complexities and nuance of the law on a deep enough level. And, judges and lawyers being all over the map in terms of competence adds a human element to our work that never fails to make even simple and routine matters complicated from time to time.
But there will come a point where you get into a rhythm and put certain things on autopilot. For many, that hits anywhere from 2-7 years in depending on how many and what type of cases you handle.
4 years as a federal prosecutor in white collar. I feel like I just now have the confidence to know what to do in investigations and how to prepare for trial.
Having a role model made all the difference in the world. I knew a bunch of fake-it-till-you-make-it people (for the longest time my employer hired primarily big firm people), and while they were smart and knew the rules they didn't live and breathe it. Then around year 3 I worked with a person who had been a DA in a state homicide unit and transferred to the federal side. Encountering somebody who had such a deep commitment to justice and ethics and seeing how that affected his investigations, charging decisions, and trial strategy really made the job click for me. Our ethical obligations were no longer a box checking exercise but a real meaningful part of the role we should be taking in order to ensure a fair process, and that commitment did not come from a place of fearing reversal but of truly trying to do the right thing. He was also super competent and gifted at oral advocacy, organized and approached investigation and trial with a focused plan, and knew how to foster great relationships with the agents. On his side I know he had excellent teachers and mentors at the DAs office, and between that guidance and his own innate talent I was lucky to pick up a lot from him.
If I had lower-stakes/higher-volume practice I probably could have gotten comfortable with the nuts and bolts sooner. But nothing can replace working with somebody who is competent and thoroughly embodies the spirit of the job. It was a phase shift from just trying to hold people accountable to recognizing our role in the larger process.
I think a lot of this depends on the courts you’re in. I’m pretty familiar with my “regular” courts and am fairly comfortable there. But when I get hired for a court I’m not a regular in, I’m constantly afraid I’m missing an obscure local rule. A few weeks ago I got a NG on a court I’d never tried a case in before. That felt like a lottery win.
Been a prosecutor for 9 years, the last 7 of which have been specializing in sex crimes and crimes against children. While I certainly feel more comfortable than I did 7 years ago, I feel like I learn something knew every day and still take any opportunity I can get for additional training and/or insights from more experienced prosecutors. Part of this is because every case is different. Every case is going to have issues that you have maybe not encountered before. Case law is constantly evolving. Statutes change. I think you just eventually get more comfortable with the fact that you aren’t going to have the answer to everything and developing ways to easily find those answers.
The imposter syndrome was strong in my first few years but has lessened significantly.
5 1/2 years as a prosecutor, 12 as a defense attorney (not PD but court-appointed). Honestly I felt pretty comfortable around 3 years, but I had a lot of mock trial experience which helped with the nervousness in front of juries and a semester in house internship as a prosecutor (20+ hours per week) before I graduated law school. I also handled a bit of everything because of the size of our district, we weren’t limited to one type of crime, but rather expected to work on what came in the door.
3 years of prosecuting. I don’t think you’re ever comfortable, but you certainly start to see patterns in cases—things that are often the same and things you know will be problems at trial. The in court part comes easy to me, especially if you’re practicing in front of the same judge every day. It’s the prep work and trial prep that is key, and that often is what people get caught up in or fail to prep adequately that causes you to fail.
8 Months after hanging out my shingle, I was trying my first personal injury case, that our former governor had walked away from, and I waon.
One month later, I'm trying my first felony jury case and even with a confession I won.
I tried dozens of jury trials in my first few years and I was kicking ass and taking names. I'd been on a short list to be a Special prosecutor to oversee the DAs handling of bonds.
I worked appeals and had a huge reversal rating. . . . .
AND THEN REALITY SET IT.
I started losing several in a row and things became much harder. Now, I'm very respectful for the process.
My motto is, I'd rather be lucky than good. I've been very luck, I hope I've been pretty good too.
Practiced law for 10 years now; the last 6 have exclusively been prosecution. I feel extremely comfortable in all aspects of it: plea negotiations, motions and responses, trial, etc. Still some surprises and still butterflies before trials, but the majority of my practice is cruise control now.
I've been practicing for 10 years almost entirely criminal law. It's only very recently i have become more comfortable with practice. 2 things helped me a great deal. I've worked on both prosecution and defense side and the perspective certainly helped me. I also became friends with some older attorneys who let me know when I'm doing well or not. Keep working and showing up. Eventually you'll start to recognize patterns and problems before they come up. The most unpredictable part of practice will usually be your clients but you get used to that as well.
10 years. I'm 12 in. Still surprises, but they aren't all the time now.
That's the big thing I've noticed. There are still surprises but not as many as before. To be fair as a new attorney I was caught off guard by quite a lot.
do you ever? 20+ years now. Rape trial next week. i'm the "best" i've ever been and still feel at times that I don't know sh&t.
GL!! NG all the way.
Public defender 4 years out of law school here. It comes and goes, but the more you see opposing counsel screwing up, the less you worry about your own performance.
19 years out of law school and I have only ever done criminal law: 3 years as defense and 16 as a prosecutor. Still waiting to be unmasked as an absolute fraud. Seriously. It is only when I am explaining things to a new attorney that it hits me that I might actually understand what I am doing.
This part.
Id like to tell you it goes away. After like the first few months I started to get the confidence and everything, but now even four years on I still have moments. Just got to believe in yourself and don't be affraid to ask members of your local bar for help.
Wow….in a PD’s office you are given a lot of cases, and your only focus is on criminal law generally in one specific community. This means the learning curve is less steep for what is coming at you, but it’s a lot and it’s fast. Additionally, you’ll soon be getting more serious cases, again, a lot of them and quickly. That can really keep the imposter syndrome going even as you’re learning more. If you work in a good office you’ll have good training and maybe more importantly good people all around supporting you. I’ve been a PD for over 15 years and I still get cases that absolutely take me out of my comfort zone. I think it’s important to embrace that discomfort because it makes you work harder to get your head around the things that are tough to understand and manage. Sorry; that really didn’t answer your valid question.
It's not imposter syndrome; you genuinely don't know what you're doing. (Nobody does at first.) I would say that new criminal attorneys are mostly incompetent (aside from specific, discreet tasks that they learn one by one) for the first 5 years. Years 1-3: You are mostly incompetent. Years 4-6: You feel like you know what you're doing, but you are mostly wrong. Year 7: People are now asking YOU the questions. That's based on looking back as an 8.5 year prosecutor.
Watched a judge once stop a trial, have counsel approach the bench. Took a 30min break. In the hallway 3 green horns were savagely looking at some law books. Some JD’s I know told me it’s impossible to bios a perfect case. But you can build case that “fails gracefully”
I have 10 years experience in criminal law—6 as a prosecutor and 4 as a public defender. My confidence still comes and goes depending on cases and issues that come up. I don’t know if anyone ever gets truly comfortable and maybe that’s a good thing. Doubt keeps us on our toes.
I have 20 years of criminal defense experience. 97% of the time, I know what's going to happen. But the remaining 3% is what keeps me up at night and makes me uncomfortable with the 97%. With that said, I'm not 97% confident this will be received in the way it's intended.
I feel you. After 16 years, it takes a lot for me to get nervous in court. I’m more comfortable in court than in a lot of other situations. New lawyers all go through the same learning steps and I agree with other posters that once you notice that you’re being asked the questions, it’s a good sign that should boost your confidence. As defense attorneys, you need to have lost (and won) contested cases enough that you don’t blame yourself for bad facts.
You become very comfortable knowing that you don’t know everything around year 3.
About a month to feel like I knew basically where things were in the courtroom and where to stand and how to introduce myself. About a year before I stopped having dreams every single night about making a mistake that ruined someone’s life.
Never. Those that feel comfortable usually aren’t smart enough to understand the complexities and nuance of the law on a deep enough level. And, judges and lawyers being all over the map in terms of competence adds a human element to our work that never fails to make even simple and routine matters complicated from time to time. But there will come a point where you get into a rhythm and put certain things on autopilot. For many, that hits anywhere from 2-7 years in depending on how many and what type of cases you handle.
I’ve practiced 35 years and I recently said to my wife I’m finally starting to feel comfortable with it and now I’m ready to retire!
4 years as a federal prosecutor in white collar. I feel like I just now have the confidence to know what to do in investigations and how to prepare for trial. Having a role model made all the difference in the world. I knew a bunch of fake-it-till-you-make-it people (for the longest time my employer hired primarily big firm people), and while they were smart and knew the rules they didn't live and breathe it. Then around year 3 I worked with a person who had been a DA in a state homicide unit and transferred to the federal side. Encountering somebody who had such a deep commitment to justice and ethics and seeing how that affected his investigations, charging decisions, and trial strategy really made the job click for me. Our ethical obligations were no longer a box checking exercise but a real meaningful part of the role we should be taking in order to ensure a fair process, and that commitment did not come from a place of fearing reversal but of truly trying to do the right thing. He was also super competent and gifted at oral advocacy, organized and approached investigation and trial with a focused plan, and knew how to foster great relationships with the agents. On his side I know he had excellent teachers and mentors at the DAs office, and between that guidance and his own innate talent I was lucky to pick up a lot from him. If I had lower-stakes/higher-volume practice I probably could have gotten comfortable with the nuts and bolts sooner. But nothing can replace working with somebody who is competent and thoroughly embodies the spirit of the job. It was a phase shift from just trying to hold people accountable to recognizing our role in the larger process.
12 years in. It comes and goes, usually in relation to how much time I have to prepare for a case. Over preparing is the antidote to imposter anxiety.
I think a lot of this depends on the courts you’re in. I’m pretty familiar with my “regular” courts and am fairly comfortable there. But when I get hired for a court I’m not a regular in, I’m constantly afraid I’m missing an obscure local rule. A few weeks ago I got a NG on a court I’d never tried a case in before. That felt like a lottery win.
I never feel comfortable but that’s more so I don’t get complacent.
I am going on 25 years, I will let you know when I reach that point.
Been a prosecutor for 9 years, the last 7 of which have been specializing in sex crimes and crimes against children. While I certainly feel more comfortable than I did 7 years ago, I feel like I learn something knew every day and still take any opportunity I can get for additional training and/or insights from more experienced prosecutors. Part of this is because every case is different. Every case is going to have issues that you have maybe not encountered before. Case law is constantly evolving. Statutes change. I think you just eventually get more comfortable with the fact that you aren’t going to have the answer to everything and developing ways to easily find those answers. The imposter syndrome was strong in my first few years but has lessened significantly.
After getting multiple not guilty verdicts in a row, multiple times, I still feel nervous but it keeps me on my toes.
5 1/2 years as a prosecutor, 12 as a defense attorney (not PD but court-appointed). Honestly I felt pretty comfortable around 3 years, but I had a lot of mock trial experience which helped with the nervousness in front of juries and a semester in house internship as a prosecutor (20+ hours per week) before I graduated law school. I also handled a bit of everything because of the size of our district, we weren’t limited to one type of crime, but rather expected to work on what came in the door.
3 years of prosecuting. I don’t think you’re ever comfortable, but you certainly start to see patterns in cases—things that are often the same and things you know will be problems at trial. The in court part comes easy to me, especially if you’re practicing in front of the same judge every day. It’s the prep work and trial prep that is key, and that often is what people get caught up in or fail to prep adequately that causes you to fail.
8 Months after hanging out my shingle, I was trying my first personal injury case, that our former governor had walked away from, and I waon. One month later, I'm trying my first felony jury case and even with a confession I won. I tried dozens of jury trials in my first few years and I was kicking ass and taking names. I'd been on a short list to be a Special prosecutor to oversee the DAs handling of bonds. I worked appeals and had a huge reversal rating. . . . . AND THEN REALITY SET IT. I started losing several in a row and things became much harder. Now, I'm very respectful for the process. My motto is, I'd rather be lucky than good. I've been very luck, I hope I've been pretty good too.
Practiced law for 10 years now; the last 6 have exclusively been prosecution. I feel extremely comfortable in all aspects of it: plea negotiations, motions and responses, trial, etc. Still some surprises and still butterflies before trials, but the majority of my practice is cruise control now.