Embarrassment

This week’s Lawyer of the Week in The Times is Phillippa Kaufman.

One of the questions The Times always asks is ‘What was your worst day as a lawyer?’ Ms Kaufman’s answer caught my eye, because it involved her first FRU case, but almost all of the people profiled by The Times have a funny story of an occasion when they wished the ground would swallow them up.

The story is worth a chuckle, but there is a serious point to be made. Anyone who spends a lot of time representing clients in litigation will, at some stage, make a fool of themselves. It’s just that sort of job.

So, while being in a constant state of mortification is probably a bad sign, the occasional embarrassing disaster should be shrugged off as best you can. It happens to us all, because it happens to anyone who regularly has to do something difficult in public.