The CSI Effect
This pop culture phenomenon can influence all phases of the trial. The authors share specific steps criminal law practitioners can use to either mitigate or exploit it.
Litigation Journal | Winter 2021: Proof
Volume 47, Issue 2
Features
Propensity—Persuasion and Prejudice
How has “other acts” evidence become such a routine part of criminal trials? The answer is multifaceted.
What Is Required to Overcome a Motion to Dismiss Under the Modern Pleading Regime
Perhaps the more interesting question is this: What practices and lessons will endure from this crisis?
Federal Habeas Corpus Review Is Broken
Congress and the Supreme Court have cloaked judicial review of wrongful convictions in layers of abstraction; the focus needs to return to the central purpose of the justice system: protecting the in…
Give the Jury What It Wants: Decision-Making in Trial Practice
Understanding the quirks of the human decision-making processes and tailoring a case to those will not magically win an otherwise frivolous case, but it may help nudge the jury in a close one.
Conversations We Should Be Having
Four litigators discuss how to succeed as a female attorney while still getting what they want out of the rest of their lives.
Columns
Respect
As trial lawyers, we should never lose sight of the fundamental importance of the manner in which we relate to one another.
Attorney-Client Privilege Challenges in International Investigations
A old new judge offers lessons from four decades spent in a variety of legal jobs, including serving as Hawaii's attorney general.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln was at the top of his game in manipulating the language in two different but complementary ways.
Burdens of Proof or Burdens on Truth?
It seems that our civil justice system has developed procedural rules of convenience that are not driven by truth-finding or fairness.
Can’t Swim? The Jump Will Kill You
Without a general kind of return to a more thoughtful and carefully grounded quest for information, we are all very much at risk, liberals and conservatives alike.
The Pentagon Papers
The many lessons learned by a future lawyer as he watched the famous legal struggle from inside the New York Times.
Information, Potential Clients, and "Taint Shopping"
It usually takes consent from both the attorney and the potential client to form an attorney-client relationship.
Headnotes
Remembrance of Steve Susman
A partner at the legal icon's eponymous firm writes about Susman's drive to mentor young lawyers and preserve jury trials.
Lessons from My Grandmother, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The Justice taught her granddaughter not to stop working until she was satisfied; that what she had done was never good enough until it was as good as she could make it.
Reflections on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice Ginsburg forever changed the landscape of gender equality. She had a stunning intellect, warm heart, and playful spirit.