Carp, I would be sure and give her a SUMMARY that gives her some context. She won't be able to see the big picture unless you DRAW IT FOR HER. Do you see what I mean?
Take all the facts, draw her a picture, and lay it out very simply so she can accurately and effectively present it to the judge.
I do this all the time in my sales job when I have to call on a real big chain that makes decisions in buying committees. I will make it EASY for my VP to understand and give him TALKING POINTS to take to his buying committee. I anticipate every possible objection and put the answer at my VP's finger tips.
That way, he understands the situation and can CONVEY IT ACCURATELY and effectively. You don't want to just throw facts -with no context - at her and hope she draws an accurate picture. Make it easy for her so she can effectively represent you.
Mel is exactly right here! Carp, let me take you back to my situation when it was heated up. I had a pitbull attorney, one noted for blasting WSs out of the water in court (and getting custody!). I picked him EXACTLY because of that.
But, did I leave him to do all of the work? Nope! I would regularly meet with him, updating him on what was going on. I would bring in more intelligence, or jounral entries, or whatever I needed to get to him. I had stacks and stacks of pictures, documents, etc for him. Much of it, he would say "we shouldnt need that." But so what? I would rather him have EVERYTHING and not need it.
So, I didnt wait on the paralegals to break down all of the evidence I had. I would come to his office, sit in his conference room on my laptop, and I would type up the summaries...so I would make sure my lawyer and the judge would get the substance and meaning behind the evidence. I wanted them to draw the same conclusion I had. So, I "framed" the evidence to make sure that happened.
Shoot, I even sat in there and typed up the cross-complaint for custody.
Once I completed something, I would walk down the hall, hand it to him and ask what he thought. He would advise me what chanes I need to make (or what more evidence I needed to go get), and I would go back and do it!
Now, three things came out of this:
First, my attorney got the message that I was very motivated about my case (thus he was motivated);
Second, I saved a ton of money (he even told me once that I probably saved around $5000 with the work I did) by doing all of that stuff for him;
And lastly, I was able to "frame" the evidence and paperwork to get out my message.
Remember, your lawyer is a hired gun. But a gun is nothing but a tool. It is NOT your lawyer's case, it is your case...it is your life.
So, while defering to the experts is fine, as you need to listen to her...at the end of the day, you are in control of your case. And you need to make her work for you! Added to that, you need to be proactive and make sure you give her everything possible that will help your case.