If there was one thing Thomas Jefferson loathed, it was criticism. Thus, he was not at all pleased with the edits forced upon his draft of the Declaration of Independence. In this scene from the excellent HBO series John Adams, we see Franklin and Adams working over Jefferson’s prose. Franklin’s edits were modest, but included one of the most memorable phrases in the document. He took Jefferson’s original language, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable,” and changed them to: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
As a group, lawyers—litigators in particular—refuse to seek out and accept criticism. That is a mistake. Whether it’s editing a brief for tone and clarity, testing an opening or closing argument, or whatever. Your goal as a lawyer is to persuade. The persuasive impact your work has is solely determined by the reader. Thus, seek out and accept criticism from others. Bring different points of view and experience to your work product. Don’t work in a silo. As we learned from Jefferson’s experience, the result typically ends up better than what you could have done on your own.