Legal Research

"Are You Stuck in Groundhog Day?"

This post was written by Julie A. Fleming: "Through years of school and various jobs and activities, we've learned how to persist even in the face of difficulties.  Persistence is an important trait, since (in the words of one of my current favorite songs) "what's worth the prize is always worth the fight."  No fight may mean no prize, and we've integrated that lesson in our professional lives.  (Think back to law school, and I virtually guarantee you'll remember at least one class that would have stopped you cold had you not been committed to fighting your way through.)

An opposing principle is the concept of diminishing returns, in which additional effort doesn't produce additional results proportional to that effort.  For example, when you draft a memorandum for a client, the first and second drafts are generally critical to the end result.  By the time you get to the fifth or fifteenth or fiftieth draft (depending on the complexity of the matter at hand), you're making only small changes and word-smithing.  A single word can occasionally affect the impact of an entire document, so experience is often required to know when you've reached the point of diminishing returns..."

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Source: Life at the Bar, 3 February 2010. © Life at the Bar LLC Blog, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on February 08, 2010 (boomark / email).