An hourly client recently surprised Blawgletter. After a strategy meeting that included several other people, an in-house lawyer remarked about our focus on the “economics” of the lawsuit — things like the cost of defense, the goals of the plaintiff, the advantages and disadvantages of joining issue at once, and the crucial importance of assessing the merits at the outset. He said he’d never heard a defense lawyer talk that way before.

Which, as we said, surprised us. It made us wonder what defense lawyers normally do talk about. Do they say things like “there, there. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll move heaven and earth to make the plaintiff wish he’d never filed suit”?

Do they even talk about balancing costs against benefits?

Or do they focus on making the client angry at the injustice of it all? On persuading them to scorch earth until the plaintiff relents?

Really. We’d like to know.