I wrote here about the mind of the criminal-defense lawyer. Today I realized I left a major point out.

In reading law practice management blogs, I happened on this post by Ed at LawBiz Blog, explaining that, according to a JD/psychologist, lawyers can’t “sell” because they have little or no “resiliency, or fast rebounding from setbacks.” He goes on to write:

Lawyers will be defensive, get their feelings hurt easily when someone says “no” to them or criticizes them, and are quick to justify their actions.

As is often true of generalizations about lawyers, this probably doesn’t quite apply to criminal-defense lawyers. Not only are defenders not easily embarrassed, but they are also very resilient. Any lawyer who can’t get his butt handed to him in trial on Tuesday afternoon and be back fighting again on Wednesday morning has no business defending people.

So does our resiliency make us better able to “sell”? In some circumstances, sure — recall the judge’s comment about “trying, and trying, and trying” in this post — but overall, I think not. Ed is talking about lawyers marketing themselves. I don’t think criminal-defense lawyers are any better at that than other sorts of lawyers. I don’t know why that is, but it’s not for want of resiliency.