[fishman]

Though she was clearly more experienced and skilled than the neophyte, Darden, she, in my opinion, clearly and often overplayed her hand in arguing lost causes with the judge, no doubt pissing him off, but far worse, alienating the jury.  She was trying to win small skirmishes at the expense of risking victory in the overall war - conviction of OJ.  Good courtroom judgment and wisdom includes knowing when to shut up and sit down - something she should have done more often.  Also her supervision of Darden was clearly deficient if she allowed him to make the monumental blunder of having OJ try on gloves that didn't fit.  You have to know the outcome with absolute certainty if you're going to try a stunt like that.  Way too much downside and not that great an upside even if the gloves do fit.  Allowing him to do his off-the-wall closing argument was also a seriously bad judgment call - did she even know what he was going to do and, if so, why did she allow it??!!

So yes, both of them severely overmatched - like putting a mediocre college team up against a top NFL team. 

[fishman]

Though she was clearly more experienced and skilled than the neophyte, Darden, she, in my opinion, clearly and often overplayed her hand in arguing lost causes with the judge, no doubt pissing him off, but far worse, alienating the jury.  She was trying to win small skirmishes at the expense of risking victory in the overall war - conviction of OJ.  Good courtroom judgment and wisdom includes knowing when to shut up and sit down - something she should have done more often.  Also her supervision of Darden was clearly deficient if she allowed him to make the monumental blunder of having OJ try on gloves that didn't fit.  You have to know the outcome with absolute certainty if you're going to try a stunt like that.  Way too much downside and not that great an upside even if the gloves do fit.  Allowing him to do his off-the-wall closing argument was also a seriously bad judgment call - did she even know what he was going to do and, if so, why did she allow it??!!

So yes, both of them severely overmatched - like putting a mediocre college team up against a top NFL team.