Life Principles of Ilya NOVIKOV, Partner at BARRISTERS, LLC.

If you talk for too long, sooner or later you’re bound to say something silly.

Reading from a piece of paper doesn’t help—it only makes things worse.

In court proceedings, there’s no point in speaking at length at all. All those hours-long speeches by famous lawyers of the past were delivered to juries and judges who were used to reading thick novels and standing through long church services. A normal modern person will be glued to their phone five minutes into your brilliant, carefully crafted speech; by the middle, they’ll have forgotten where you started; and by the end—they’ll have forgotten your name and why you’re even there. And they’ll be right.

My path to the legal profession began with Earl Stanley Gardner’s detective novels about the lawyer Perry Mason. And this demonstrates once again that it doesn’t matter at all where you start, since my current job has very little in common with the adventures of a fictional American lawyer from the mid-20th century. Still, I think I’ve had fewer disappointments than those who went to work for the police after reading all about Commissioner Maigret.

My favorite literary episode about a lawyer comes from the 11th-century Icelandic *Saga of Njal*. A character named Thorhall, a legal expert who was advising the plaintiff, cites a law that no one knows exists except himself and the chief judge. And they’re bound to win the case, since no one was prepared for this. But then the opposing side resorts to trickery, everything gets tangled up, and instead of a trial, a general swordfight breaks out. Overall, it’s similar to our lives, except that back then, the law and the courts were taken much more seriously.

I myself belong to the last pre-internet generation. It’s like the generation before the invention of writing: back then, if you were an educated person, you knew thousands of verses from poems, songs, and even those very laws by heart. And then suddenly—a completely different situation arises, and a completely different set of standards is applied.

In any legal case, establishing the facts is always more important than the applicable law, the parties’ positions, case law, and everything else. Ideally, textbooks on procedure should start right away with a chapter on evidence. That way, students would develop a sound approach to the case more quickly.

Every time I walk out of the detention center and the iron doors slam shut behind me, I can’t help but imagine what the person left on the other side is feeling. I suppose that’s not very professional.

Can a lawyer publicly say that the prosecutor is corrupt, the court is biased, the verdict is a foregone conclusion, or the case is politically motivated? Maybe—but it’s probably best not to start the case by saying that right away. For starters, you could at least say hello.

Tug-of-war and competitive litigation are intellectual sports. Before objecting to my opponents’ motions, I always consider whether I might gain some advantage by supporting them. Sometimes it’s worth loosening the rope a little for your opponent—maybe later you’ll be able to throw it around his neck.

If a lawyer shows up in court wearing a bow tie, people will think he’s a dandy; if he wears a regular tie, they’ll think he’s a bore; if he goes without a tie, they’ll think he’s too cocky. That’s partly why I like the English court system so much—everyone there wears the same boxy collars.

The most interesting part of criminal proceedings is working with a jury. If (when) a true jury trial system is introduced in Ukraine, many of today’s problems will resolve themselves. True, new problems will arise in their place, but everything has its price.

You always have to keep in mind what the next case will be. When I was defending Nadiya Savchenko and giving interviews every day, a wise old lawyer told me, “Everyone knows you now as Savchenko’s lawyer. But you need them to know you as Novikov’s lawyer.” He was right.

When you buy a convertible, the first thing you get used to is never driving behind garbage trucks. That’s actually my main observation—it says it all: about life, middle age, public behavior, reputation, and garbage trucks.