Interview with Lincoln Sieler

Lincoln Sieler is a skilled litigator and trial lawyer who specializes in catastrophic personal injury, commercial trucking accidents, and product liability. He currently practices at Friedman | Rubin and is also part of Trucking Injury Law Group, a group of experienced attorneys who have teamed up to take on claims handling complex truck wrecks. In his years as a successful litigator and attorney, Lincoln has obtained a large number of substantial jury verdicts and settlements for his clients.

Lawyer Minds: What types of cases do you handle?

Lincoln Sieler: I handle catastrophic personal injury, commercial trucking accidents and product liability cases and also do some coverage and bad faith litigation.

Lawyer Minds: What types of cases do you find most challenging? Why?

Lincoln Sieler: I find product liability cases the most challenging primarily because they are so heavily defended and can require you to obtain and digest decades worth of information that the manufacturer had available to it that would have shown the product was unreasonably dangerous if only the manufacturer had cared to put safety over profit.

Lawyer Minds: What constitutes success in your mind regarding a case outcome?

Lincoln Sieler: Generally speaking, a civil trial lawyer’s success is judged by the monetary recovery they ultimately obtain but many of our product liability cases result in industry wide change in the form of safer products.

Lawyer Minds: What is your favorite part of a trial? Why?

Lincoln Sieler: I like closing arguments because that is when the lawyer has the freedom to really put everything together and empower the jury to do something on behalf of the community.

Lawyer Minds: What is the single most important thing a lawyer needs to know about trial?

Lincoln Sieler: You are not going to win every evidentiary skirmish and need to be flexible enough to deal with those minor defeats on the fly.

You are not going to win every evidentiary skirmish and need to be flexible enough to deal with those minor defeats on the fly.

Lawyer Minds: Have you ever felt yourself paralyzed by nerves, either before or during trial? If so, how did you get yourself out of it?

Lincoln Sieler: I don’t know any attorneys that haven’t felt that. For me, I just try to do a short mediation and breathing work and that is usually enough. They also tend to go away once you get started.

Lawyer Minds: What is the number one thing you feel needs to be changed about the legal system in the U.S.?

Lincoln Sieler: I think that the rules of civil procedure are generally written to favor the defense and to put a lot of obstacles in the way of getting to trial – especially in federal court. I think disco very should be liberally allowed protective orders should be disfavored and when they are allowed, they should provide for sharing among similarly situated parties, and that obstructionist tactics have to be firmly shut down by judges.

Lawyer Minds: What unique struggles do lawyers face?

Lincoln Sieler: It is easy to let your work bleed over into and consume more of your family time than it should.

Lawyer Minds: How can lawyers continue to learn and grow while practicing law?

Lincoln Sieler: Practicing law is a process of lifelong learning not just about the law, but as a trial lawyer, it means you have to commit to getting to know yourself better and to constantly improve on yourself.

Practicing law is a process of lifelong learning not just about the law, but as a trial lawyer, it means you have to commit to getting to know yourself better and to constantly improve on yourself.

Lawyer Minds: What’s one thing you want the readers to know about you that we didn’t ask?

Lincoln Sieler: I care about my clients as people and don’t see them as “customers.”

Lawyer Minds would like to thank Lincoln Sieler for sharing his insights with our readers.