'Kat in the Hat' (Tampa edition)

'Kat in the Hat' (Tampa edition)

One lawyer entertains and endears herself to law students as she dons hats to teach a lesson: Don't forget your humanity in your zeal to be an advocate.

By Janet Leiser

Managing Editor

Katherine "Kat" Silverglate was a successful lawyer making good money at a large South Florida firm, but she hated her job and the profession that seemed to breed a "win at any cost" attitude.

She participated in a teach-in at one of Miami's poorer schools when she asked the second-grade class if anyone knew what a lawyer did. A child answered: "A lawyer is someone you pay to lie for you."

The problem, Silverglate recalls, was that she agreed with the boy.

"It was absolutely mind boggling to me that this was what law was all about," Silverglate says. "I was devastated."

Over time, though, with help from a Squire, Sanders & Dempsey partner, who served as Silverglate's mentor, she realized she could be a successful advocate for her clients and still be ethical, professional and human.

Now Silverglate is spreading the word to students at Florida's law schools as chair of the Florida Bar's Professionalism Committee through her program, "The Many Fabulous Hats a Lawyer Wears: What One Lawyer Wishes She Knew Before She Entered the Practice of Law."

At a Feb. 8 session at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Silverglate, a 1988 graduate of the University of Florida law school, entertained and endeared herself to students with true tales of her first years as a lawyer. She donned more than a dozen hats, from a wizard's to a policeman's, acting out the various roles a lawyer plays. Many of her early run-ins could have been prevented if she'd had a mentor from the beginning to give advice, she says.

"You'll think I'm a total goat," she says, starting her story.

There was a time when a lawyer on the other side wouldn't give Silverglate documents she'd requested. He insisted he wouldn't provide them and wouldn't give a reason for his refusal. As they discussed the issue, he said that was that and he was going to the restroom.

Silverglate followed him into the men's room. "I know I scared the pee out of him," she says. When she refused to leave, he told her, "I'll give you anything you want if you get out of the men's room!"

On another occasion, Silverglate received a letter she didn't like from an experienced female lawyer who represented Silverglate's client's estranged spouse. She wrote a letter telling opposing counsel to quit wasting trees to write "dribble," and instead call next time. She taped a quarter to the letter.

"And as if that's not bad enough," she says. "Then I xeroxed the letter with the quarter and put it in the firm's file."

Another time she was deposing a lawyer as a witness in a case. The lawyer, who had undergone back surgery, called to ask if she could come to his place. No, she replied, "Come to my office."

She then proceeded to place the attorney in one of the office's most uncomfortable chairs. Throughout the deposition, he referred to her as Ms. Hun as in "Attila the Hun."

"I hated being a lawyer," she says. "I hated other lawyers."

Then she found a mentor, who over time helped her learn she had a job to do and it wasn't all about her.

"It was really hard at first to put myself aside," she says, telling about a federal case that involved "Mr. Big" as opposing counsel. "He was a big, fat dinosaur," she says.

The relationship was as adversarial as it could be. They were at a meeting to share evidence when Mr. Big realized he'd probably lose the case, she says. And she was felling quite smug.

Mr. Big received a telephone call. His mother had just died. He collapsed to the floor in tears. Silverglate tried to console him.

"It was that moment I became a lawyer," she says. "If we make it into a 'us and them,' we're going to lose. I stopped letting myself get into the way."

She told the students they should never, ever tape a quarter to a letter. "She (opposing counsel) might turn out to be a federal judge with a lifetime appointment in your district," Silverglate says.

Yep. Fortunately for Silverglate that judge is also a forgiving person who last year returned the letter with the quarter to wish her luck in her bid to become a judge.

Oh, and that man she followed into the men's room?

He's now on the evaluation board for Martindale-Hubbell, which decides whether a lawyer does a good, adequate or bad job.

He too is a forgiving guy, she says, or she wouldn't have the highest rating of AV.

"It is pure grace I have survived as long as I did," she says.

She urges students to take advantage of the bar's e-mentoring program at flarbar.org. "I want to make sure no other student steps into the manure I've stepped into," she says. "It is necessary. You don't know what you're doing yet."

There will be mistakes along the way even with help from an experienced lawyer or judge, she says. But that's OK. "If you're not celebrating your mistakes, you're not learning."