In contrast to manufacturing or other industries where mechanical mistakes can be blamed for failure, if a legal project goes wrong, human performance is pretty much the only factor. That’s not to say that the lawyer is the only human involved, or that chance, randomness, and capriciousness can’t play a part. But even so, if there are failings they won’t be mechanical. They’ll be human, and usually they’ll be on us, the lawyers. Clients don’t care who on the legal team made the mistake, they are only interested in having it corrected. This is why we need to talk about mistakes.

Lawyers make mistakes. It’s impossible to do our job and never make a slip, an error of judgment or a miscalculation. The thing is, if you’re evaluating your project carefully then most times the effect of your mistake will be something visible, and correctible. No one needs to own them; they’re just error states. Find them early, don’t hide them, learn from them. That’s it.

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