In summer 2014, Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell managing partner Carolyn Fairless tried back-to-back legal malpractice cases to juries. The panels delivered decisive defense verdicts for two different law firm clients, and she even won attorney fees in one case.

After two months of grueling courtroom work, Fairless was hardly ready to blissfully settle into an office routine. “I was despondent for about a month,” she joked about her posttrial mood. “It’s so much fun to be in trial.”