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A typical day

Mostly reading and writing at a desk. You go through documents, research how courts have ruled before, and draft: a motion, a contract, a letter, an argument. Phone calls with clients who are frightened or angry. Meetings about strategy. If you litigate, a court appearance is an occasional punctuation mark, and you prepare for it for days. Deadlines are set by courts and do not move, which is the real source of the pressure in this job.