Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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As a young lawyer, I attended informal lunches with senior practitioners and judges at a restaurant which reserved two round tables daily for the legal profession to congregate on an ad hoc basis.

As an arbitrator apprentice, I accompanied my mentor who was almost 50 years my senior. The esteemed lawyers and judges intimidated me and I seldom spoke unless responding to a direct question. I mostly listened in silence.

Many of the attendees had great humility but some were boastful and self-aggrandizing. There was one very successful senior lawyer who also ate in silence and rarely offered opinions or comments. Once while walking with him after lunch, he commended me on my ability to be silent while paying attention to the details of the conversation. I responded that he rarely spoke. He noted that the words “listen” and “silent” had identical six letters and that he felt his success had a lot to do with his ability to observe and process information and his ability to “listen” in “silence.”