We all make mistakes and have bad days. That’s, in part, what liability insurance is for. But I recently had a good reminder not to trust your memory when communicating information to others including opposing counsel, the court, your client, and in my case, the State Bar. I was on a conference call, communicating anecdotal information to a subcommittee of the State Bar regarding the licensure of one of our attorneys. I was convinced that one of our attorneys was licensed in 2012 or later, when in fact, she was licensed much earlier. I am not sure why I believed this–perhaps it is her youthful glow, or that she had not been practicing with our firm for very long. In any case, I conveyed that information to the subcommittee as part of the example I was giving, and I was wrong. Yikes! Thanks to some quick fact-checking by State Bar staff, I was corrected on the conference call. No big deal in this context, except that I was very embarrassed. But, it was a good reminder that even when you think you know the facts, check first and verify before communicating the information to others.
