Scheduling will consume much of your time. Even in the age of electronic calendars mistakes happen.
For example, this summer, I went to a pretrial conference and opposing counsel was no where to be found. I called his office and they tried to locate him. He ended up arriving an hour and a half later. I wasn’t mad. It happens to the best of us. But I did waste an hour and a half of my time.
Later this summer, I got a call from another lawyer saying “where are you?” to which my response was “at my desk”. He politely informed me that I was supposed to be at a pretrial in Bridgeport. I frantically looked through my file – I did not receive a calendar notice. When I told this to the clerk he said we sent one and I said “yeah but I don’t have it”. Maybe the notice got lost in the mail or maybe it was misfiled in my office – I’ve never found it. Needless to say the pretrial didn’t go forward. I couldn’t attend an event that I was unaware of.
In practice, your clients will forget court dates. Opposing counsel will forget court dates. Scheduling mishaps happen and they shouldn’t.
The solution is simple – call opposing counsel a day or two before an event be it a court date or a deposition. Otherwise you risk finding yourself with court reporter sitting in a room and no witness to depose.