What is this Blog?

Hi everyone!

My name is Will Newman and I am a lawyer in New York.  I represent clients in lawsuits.  Many of my cases have to do with contract disputes or employment disputes.  Some have to do with allegations of a defective product, fraud, or corporate mismanagement.

I am aware of the fact that there are a lot of internet people who write about "The Law," but that generally refers to two things.  Either it's (1) Big Constitutional Issues, like how the Supreme Court will interpret election law; or (2) The Business of Law, like reporting on giant law firm mergers or which giant law firm made a bunch of money on a very big transaction.

Fewer internet people write about the day-to-day tasks involved in suing people (or getting sued).  These include reviewing thousands of a witness's emails, editing PDFs so that they can be e-filed, searching for cases on Westlaw, and writing formal letters. 

I suspect that more people don't write about these tasks is because they are tedious and not obviously relevant to the lives of the general public.  But here are some reasons you may care:

• You may one day need to sue someone, or get sued, and become curious what lawyers actually do that takes so much time and costs so much money.

• You may be considering a career in law and mistakenly believe that the job involves debating the commerce clause of the constitution with Justice Alito all day.

• You may meet a lawyer or paralegal and want to let them know that you understand a little about why they're annoyed all the time.

So, for awhile, I will write about everyday aspects of commercial litigation, the type of law where people and businesses sue each other.  I do this in New York, but I will try my best to get some perspectives from people who do this in other places.

I tried for awhile to come up with a catchy and clever name for the blog. I wanted a name that reflects the challenge of a demanding and technical job, that portrays me in a positive light, and that is funny enough to make people laugh and want to read more. But instead I went with “Unpredictable” because it is the word I use frequently to describe the job.

At the start of a lawsuit, many clients want to know what will happen during the case. It is natural to want to know how much will it cost, what will you need to do, and who will win. But the truth is that, although lawyers can provide guidance about what how cases will likely proceed, there are no guarantees and often unexpected developments. For example, the adversary may make an unexpected argument, a witness may say an unexpected thing, or the judge or jury may see the facts or law very differently than the parties do. Litigation is challenging in part because of this unpredictable nature.

To be clear, none of this website is legal advice and, unless you hire me, I am not your lawyer.  Please don't rely on anything on this website for your own legal issues.  This is just me sharing some details about what I do.

Cheers!

Will