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Making It Up as We Go Along

Issue July/August 2024 August 2024 By Ed Ferrante
Young Lawyers Division Section Review
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Ed Ferrante

One of the most unexpected lessons from graduation and finishing school forever is that it is a lot harder to make friends out of school. In school, you are around people in an environment where everyone is there for a common purpose, and you see them on a regular basis. When you graduate from school, you have to go out of your way to meet people. People are working and have other commitments that prevent them from going out to meet other people. It is easy to fall into a routine of working, commuting, cooking, paying bills, trying to get paid, etc. It is easier to meet people in school since you likely have no family obligations or work obligations.

After graduation, you are on your own. You have to develop your interests and find your own identity outside of your occupation or as a law student. We do not get any training on developing relationships and socializing even though we need to collaborate with others to prepare our cases. It is one of the things that we are expected to know but never learn in school.

In my free time, I take improv classes. Improv has a similar function to law school classes. You go to classes every week. You see the same people over the course of weeks for the same purpose. You get chances to grab lunches and spend time with your fellow classmates outside of class. You perform in front of an audience just like a trial or hearing. There is no homework or outlines for class.

We are told all the time that we need to be quick on our feet, but nobody explains how to be adaptable in court when things do not go according to plan. The only predictable thing about trial is that things will not go according to plan. You can control what you do, but you cannot predict what a jury, a judge, opposing counsel, a witness or your client will do on the day of trial. Opposing counsel might just bring in last-minute evidence that was conveniently found on the day of trial, but the judge decides to let in the evidence, so you will have to work around the evidence. The witness might say something new for the first time ever on the witness statements. Your client may show up late.

With improv, you have to be on your feet and need to discover where you are going with very little information. You need to know your base reality, which is the characters’ relationships to each other and the setting. You have to prioritize listening and react in real time without a script. You do not get any time to think. You have to put on a presentation in front of an audience largely of people you do not know. In court, you have to make a presentation in front of jurors you have never met before. The classes give you multiple times to perform in practices. They also help with public speaking skills. At the end of class, you perform a graduation class in front of an audience of people packed into a theater.

Improv is a great way to meet new friends. Most of them are not lawyers. It is a great way to reach out to non-lawyers and educate people on the law and legal system. You can also get a lay opinion from some of your classmates on your cases to see if your case makes sense to people who could be jurors. You can also share your law stories since we get the most unbelievable stories from court. You can even use your war stories for a monologue to influence what the show will be about.

Life is stressful. It is very easy to burn out, especially in this stressful profession. It is important to keep your sense of humor. It will provide an escape from being a lawyer. You do not need a plan in improv. All you need is your imagination and last-minute ideas. You can perform in a low-stakes environment. There are no negative repercussions if you make a mistake. The worst-case scenario is a joke not landing. No one is going to jail, going bankrupt, losing custody of children, getting evicted, etc. There is always a possibility of missing the mark when you take a risk. Not everything will be a hit, but you can get it most times. You just have to try again. It helps build resilience, which can transfer over to the legal profession.

Ed Ferrante was sworn in as a lawyer in 2017. After struggling to find his place in the legal profession, he created his own position in the legal profession. He started the Law Office of Edward M. Ferrante in 2019. He is a member of the Essex Bar Advocates, a private attorney who represents indigent people charged with crimes. He represents people in Salem District Court. Recently, the Committee for Public Counsel Services accepted him for its Mental Health Litigation Division, where he will represent clients when the mental hospital tries to commit them as dangers to themselves and others.