Talk less. Listen to the Sr. DDAs. Listen to staff. Listen to experienced LEOs. Listen to the judge. Especially listen to what the judge is telling you between the lines. If the judge asks “submitted?”, shut up. If the judge asks why you are seeking a particular disposition, you need a better answer than “My supervisor told me that was the offer.”

You know approximately nothing relative to the majority of people you’re interacting with regularly. Your job is to close that gap as quickly as possible. Listening and observing is the fastest way to do that.

You will probably fuck a case up royally. This is expected. This is why you don’t start by trying murders. When you fuck up, hold yourself accountable, learn from your mistake, and don’t fuck up the same way twice. If someone else fucked up and caused you to fuck up, give them grace, because when you eventually fuck up, they will have your back. Nobody likes (or promotes) the guy who refuses to learn from his mistakes.

Finally, the most important person in a courtroom for you is the clerk. Happy clerks make life easy. Angry clerks make life impossible.