Trial

So far up to now, my perceptions of other people are based on what they say in class. If someone consistently passes, I figure they're just not the brightest bulb in the barrel and/or just lazy. The people who consistently say some smart things lead me to view them as the next Learned Hand.

But recently, there has been a spate of oral arguments, mock trials, moot court, and other related oral advocacy things here at school that has definitely led me to see some people in a different light. Some people who don't say the smartest things in class have redeemed themselves by being to kick the butt of people in oral advocacy.

What's the scariest word to a HLS educated, Order of the Coif, Law Review Editor-in-chief, SCOTUS clerk and legal posterboy?

Trial

Specifically, a jury trial.

Even more specifically, trial with a jury of your peers.

Because at least in LA, NY, DC, and most other places in America, a jury of your peers consists of black/brown/poor/hates lawyers/couldn't make an excuse to get excused from jury duty, and stories abound of smooth-talking lawyers from unaccredited law schools (or better yet, one who didn't even go to law school--in CA, you can become a lawyer if you do a kind of apprenticeship and then take the bar) kicking the butt of the legal posterboy.