BigLaw Partner’s Stuttering Brought Tears from Moot Court Judge, Respect from Real Jurors
Cozen O’Connor partner David Walton says his stuttering was so bad in law school that his moot court judge started crying in the middle of his argument.
Despite the mock judge’s tears of sympathy, Walton’s professor assured his student that he didn’t need to avoid the courtroom. The professor said Walton’s stuttering would help him connect with jurors and spur them to listen more closely, Walton writes at the blog From the Sidebar.
When Walton tried a lengthy case several years ago, he learned the professor was right. Jurors sided with Walton’s client; it was Pennsylvania’s largest verdict in a trade secrets case at the time. Afterward, a group of jurors approached Walton and told him they respected his courage for being a trial lawyer even though he had a minor stutter.
“I was surprised and a little embarrassed by the jurors’ comments,” writes Walton, a partner in Cozen O’Connor’s labor and employment practice group. “My first thought was, I don’t remember stuttering that much. As the jurors walked away from me, I realized that I had something that was natural and genuine. It was an epiphany—my stutter was a great gift.”
Walton sees lessons for lawyers in his experience.
“I wouldn’t change a thing about my stutter,” he writes. “It has made me tough; it has taught me how to fight through adversity. Yet, everyone who is reading has something in their life like stuttering that they’ve had to overcome. The key is to use those experiences as strengths in a courtroom and provide the confidence to be yourself. So if you’re like me and you’re not a silver-tongued lawyer, just know it doesn’t matter. It does not matter one iota.”
