As a baseball fan, I have always chuckled at the statement attributed to Ty Cobb, the great baseball player. Cobb, to be sure was crusty, if not downright mean, but in at least one instance he was very funny. Someone approached Cobb toward the end of his life and said, “What do you think you would hit if you were playing baseball today?” Cobb answered, “.300.” The questioner was confused because Cobb’s lifetime average was .367 and the questioner expected Cobb to say over .400 given the state of the pitching at the time of the question. Cobb’s answer, “You have to remember, I’m 73 years old.”
The point which is relevant to personal injury law is that the lawyer’s skills do not diminish in the same way that an athlete’s skills diminish. A lawyer can be as capable, or more so, in his 50s than he or she was twenty years earlier. Not so with a ballplayer.
Of course, one of the ways to maintain that edge is to have the enthusiasm and seriousness to attend continuing legal education courses. However, that is just one of several ways. Fortunately, in the legal world it may be easier to get around the fastball in your middle age.