Practice

Basketball great Allen Iverson once went on a famous rant about practice in a press conference when questioned about his absence at one:

“Practice?! We’re talking about PRACTICE??!!”

Yes Allen, we’re talking about practice!

In surveying the landscape of the legal world and litigation, I’ve seen consistent references to the fact that many law firms and legal organizations lack any kind of continuing skill development for lawyers. They expect them to bill early and bill often, which becomes the priority of their time.

That leaves little room for … practice.

Imagine if football teams never practiced. No individual drills. No 1v1s. No group repetitions. No skelly. No team sessions. No film reviews. No walk throughs.

Just played games.

The quality of play would plummet.

This is what often happens in law firms. Even the most basic skills atrophy from disuse and no practice. Atrophy = no trophy.

Here is the reality: Under fire, we will default to the level of our training. If the training is bad or nonexistent…

As a college defensive back and later a DB coach, I put great emphasis on individual daily fundamental drills. Do it often enough and it becomes muscle memory, which means unthinking reversion to the training.

Same with group and team work, which also incorporated an element of competition into the exercises. 1V1s. 7v7s. 11v11s. Applying the individual techniques to a broader purpose.

Before his senior season as a high school QB, I watched my son @matthewneff work tirelessly with his receivers in route running and timing throws. The Summer before the season began, they competed in some prominent 7v7 tournaments against much larger schools and tore them apart.

One team had DBs who were committed to play at 4 of the most elite football universities in the country. Matthew dissected them with 7 TD passes and a win. The other team’s DBs started yelling at each other. Practice led to success even against significant odds.

In prosecuting a capital case, one of my witnesses “flipped” on me on the stand. Claimed I told him to lie. In front of the jury. I had a brief moment of utter panic before defaulting to my training. I knew exactly what my options were and what I should do. 90 minutes later, I was able to flip his flip, and it helped lead to a conviction and death sentence.

Lawyers need practice. Neff Strategies can provide elite training.

#footballandforensics

Pic: Vid of Matthew drilling a game winning TD pass in a 7v7 tournament – a sign of things to come when the games started for real.