Love her or hate her, you have to admire U.S Sen. Hillary Clinton'stenacity. Whether she'll ultimately take the Democratic nomination forpresident remains up in the air; as of this writing, neither she norher Democratic opponent,has cried "uncle." But, win or lose, like her or not, the New Yorksenator's campaign offers women lawyers some valuable lessons as theyfight their own battles in this still male-dominated profession.

Never underestimate an opponent. The most importantmistake the Clinton campaign made was that it didn't seem to anticipatewhat it was up against. A first-term senator from Illinois nobody hadheard of until four years ago? It should have been a cakewalk.Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign didn't seem to have put much of anorganization in place beyond the Feb. 4 Super Tuesday primaries. Itlost momentum just when it needed to pick up steam.

Fortunately, she managed a strong showing in Texas (and solidwins in Ohio and Rhode Island), so she's back in the race now. Butthere's no doubt that she didn't anticipate Obama becoming the Bono of Democratic Party politics, and she hadn't put in place the infrastructure for a campaign stretching well into the spring.