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Top 100 TrialLawyers inAmerica

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What is your general approach to andattitude about being a trial lawyer? Was italways your ambition to assume this role?Yes, it was because when I became interestedin law, to me, a lawyer was always a triallawyer. I actually didn’t know any lawyersbefore I went to law school. My parentsdidn’t go to college, so I didn’t grow uparound academia or have exposure to thelegal profession other than what little I knewabout law, which was trial law. To me beinga trial lawyer and being a lawyer weresynonymous. My understanding of what alawyer did was, you went to court and youtried cases.

It’s impressive that your parents didn’tattend college and you didn’t grow uparound legal academia and yet you’vearrived where you are today.

It’s a long story and I won’t bore you with thedetails but I started plotting this when I wasabout 14. I obviously needed a plan and thefirst phase of the plan was to get ascholarship to go to college because withoutone I wasn’t going at all. I actually passed ongoing to a particular prestigious high schoolbecause I knew going to that school woulddiminish my scholarship chances because Iwould be surrounded by students who weresmarter than me! So instead I went to acommunity high school and earned theunhappiness of the principal of my formerschool, who summoned in my parents andtold them what a mistake I was making.But I followed my path and worked hard

toward my goal. In the meantime I earnedmoney working all of these odd jobs, sellingshoes and all sorts of other jobs. Then Iwrote a book. The book earned me anadvance and I used that money to put towardlaw school.

You wrote a book? And you got that big ofan advance on your first book?

Yes, it was called The Russian Jewry Reader,and it sold about 10,000 copies and wasactually used as a high school textbook. I did

a Masters in Russian Soviet studies and wasactually thinking of becoming a historyprofessor but changed my mind.The backstory to this is, at a certain point Igot a job as a headhunter, where there was nosalary but I got money if I placed people. Onthe Saturday before my first day on the job,a drunk driver ran a red light and hit my carhead-on, which landed me in the hospitaland put me on crutches, so I wound up losingthe job. So there I am sitting home oncrutches and – you want to talk about adivine hand intervening – I got a phone callasking me if I could come up with a textbookfor this Russian study course. I said, “Well, Ican if you can give me an advance.” I woundup getting a $2600 advance, which was a lotof money for the time.

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Interview

Q&A with Evan CheslerEvan Chesler is a universallyrevered trial lawyer in the NewYork office of Cravath, Swaine &Moore, the firm he interviewedfor upon graduating law schooland has remained with eversince. When queried about hisrole at the firm, Chesler quips,“All I do is try cases – that’s allthey let me do here.” Althoughspeaking with obvious humor,Chesler is acknowledged bymany as “the embodiment of atrial lawyer.” Speaking withBenchmark editor MichaelRafalowich, he speaks to hisrelatively humble beginnings, hissuccessful literary pursuits, andhis career highlights, as well asoffering advice to aspiring triallawyers and discussing whatturned out to be his last-ever jobinterview.

“The great thingabout this professionis that every case isa new career.They’re all different.”

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Interview

How did you end up at Cravath?

While I was in law school, I was reading inthe library when I discovered a book calledLions in the Street by Paul Hoffman. Thebook chronicled the top law firms in NewYork at the time, and the very first chapterreferences Cravath. The chapter is actuallycalled “The Congress of Vienna Sits on the57th Floor” – at the time that’s the floor thatCravath was on in the building. I thought,“Wow, that’s impressive for a firm to bereferenced as the Congress of Vienna,” andimmediately inquired more about them. Aprofessor told me, “If you want to be the bestlawyer you’re ever going to be, call thisnumber.” He gave me the number of WayneChapman, who was the hiring manager forCravath at the time. So I called Wayne, heeventually called me in for an interview, andthat was the last job interview I’ve ever had.

While you are identified as one of thecountry’s most celebrated generalist triallawyers, would you view yourself as havingsomewhat of a slant toward a particularpractice area? For instance, in recent times itseems like you’ve been especially noted foryour antitrust work. Or do you just gowhere the work is?

It’s definitely the latter. At the moment, Ihappen to be doing a lot of antitrust work.But the first four years I was a partner I onlydid trade secrets cases. People used to ask me“How did you come to be an IP lawyer?” Isaid, “I’m not an IP lawyer, I’m a trial lawyerwho is learning my craft, and at the momentit happens to involve a lot of trade secretswork.” Then I had the luck of handling anantitrust case for three months. I had been onantitrust cases before but never as the leadtrial lawyer, examining witnesses and soforth. This was in the winter of 1987 – Ispent that whole winter in Philadelphia! Soafter that, I started developing a name as anantitrust lawyer. Then again, in the 1990s,The Wall Street Journal described me as “awell-known securities lawyer” because atthat time there was a spate of 10b-5 casesthat I was handling.

What are the personal qualities one mustbring to being a trial lawyer? Are there anyspecifically, or do you feel that it is open toanyone who puts in the effort and receivesproper training?

I don’t think it’s open to anyone. It is notsomething everyone is comfortable doing, forseveral reasons. There is no ambiguity in

being a trial lawyer, and many people aresimply more comfortable with ambiguity,situations where everyone walks awaysomewhat satisfied with the result. Situationslike that are not binary like a trial, wherethere’s clearly a winner and a loser. There ismore of a level of success or victory that youcan spread around the table, and for a lot ofpeople that is a better model than someonewalking out a winner and someone a loser.There are also some basic personality traitsyou must have. You need to be able to dealwith the absolute certainty of the outcome.You need to prepare with an enormouslycalculated ratio for the time you are on yourfeet in court. For every hour that you arethere, a huge amount of preparation isinvolved. That takes patience, that takesdiscipline, and that takes being able to workwith a team. The mythology of the star whostands up in court and just makes magichappen by themselves is just that – amythology. Everything I do is a product of agreat team behind me. You don’t have timeto verify everything yourself and do all of theheavy lifting yourself. You have to have anetwork of people that you can trust, andthey have to trust you implicitly. It’s a wholeconstellation of personality traits and skills.This is all in addition to the obvious, whichis that you have to stand up in front ofstrangers and be confident, and also appearto be confident, which are two differentthings. You have to be at your best whenthings are at their worst. It’s easy to fly whenyou have a tail wind but it’s when you runinto the headwinds that you really begin tobuild your mettle as a trial lawyer.

What advice would you give an aspiringtrial lawyer in today’s environment?

The rules have changed and the environmenthas changed. The number of cases going totrial is shrinking. It’s a minority that actuallygo at all these days. The results of a trialbeing binary and clients being as risk-averseas they are means that often a settlement,even a less-than-ideal one, is the preferredoption to the risk of a trial.When cases can’t be settled and they do go

to trial, clients often go to lawyers who areproven commodities. This makes it harderfor young, aspiring lawyers to build a book

of experience. However, I still firmly believethat there are great opportunities for thosewho really want it. There will always be aplace for people who can be others’ voices,and that’s what trial lawyers are. The adviceI would give is be patient – don’t be in ahurry. It’s important to know what you’retalking about and not just be someone wholikes to hear your own voice. Take the timeto learn the subject and craft the right way toapproach it. That’s not easy; if it were easyeveryone would do it. Once you have theability on your feet, take every opportunityyou can find. Once you have the forensicsdown, do whatever possible to get theexperience.

Who do you view as your equals in the fieldof trial law?

There are a number of really great onesaround – there are those whose reputationsare better than reality and there are thosewhose reality is better than the reputations!There are some truly superb trial lawyers thatjust don’t have the notoriety. Some of the besttrial lawyers that immediately come to mindare David Boies, Ted Wells, John Keker, DanWebb, and Bill Lee.

Are there any cases that stand out to you asreal career highlights?

I always struggle with that question becauseI have learned something about what I do inevery case that I’ve tried. They’re alldifferent, and that’s the great thing about thisprofession. Every case is a new career. Thereare great moments, things that I was proudof, things that were challenging, but eachcase has its own personality, each hasmoments of personal development. Some ofthe things I’ve gotten more notoriety andrecognition for were things that at the time Ididn’t think were any different or moresignificant than anything else I did.I tried a breach-of-contract case for RossPerot once. I was on TV and in the media,but to me it was just a breach-of-contractcase. It was not that complicated and it wasnot any different than many other cases thatI’ve done but because of who the client was,it made me look like I’d done somethingamazing. I was constantly being asked “Howdid you do that” and I was amused by it.

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