"Choosing Between Trial And Appellate Work"

Everything Mark Herrmann writes is worth some attention. Today (here) he focuses his keen attention on a question of keen interest to our audience: "What would you rather do for a career — try cases or argue appeals?" Here are a few choice snippets from the article:

Pro trial work

• Trials are a hoot.
• The fun part of the game is building the record.  That’s where the real creativity is.  If you’re an appellate lawyer, you’re forced to rely on the case that someone else assembled, and that’s not nearly as much fun.
• Appellate work is not highly leveraged and is thus generally less profitable 

Pro Appellate work

• “doing discovery” is itself a euphemism for “suffering through months of mind-numbing tedium while lunatics on the other side try to make your life miserable.
• You also won’t have to endure assaults and insults from opposing counsel. 
• Trials are over-rated.  They’re terribly stressful.