Storytelling: The Art of the Advocate
At every stage of litigation, the art of the advocate is crafting a good story and telling it effectively so that the listener prefers your client’s story over that of your opponent.
Litigation Journal | Spring 2023: Presentation
Volume 49, Issue 3
Features
Finding the Human Story
To enhance your effectiveness in litigation, find and tell the nuanced human stories of your clients' cases.
Examining the Expert
The author offers some courtroom techniques that stray from the standard rituals, to add to your tool kit when examining experts.
Presenting Yourself on Social Media
Lessons on how to present yourself on social media to the benefit of your practice, reputation, and personal life.
Judges Should Social Distance--on Social Media
Judges are a vulnerable population in the social media world, where the Code of Judicial Conduct, case law, and advisory ethics opinions can be applied to the unwary or the unwise.
The Sentence: A One-Dimensional Approach
Efficient, persuasive sentences are not only good in and of themselves; they provide a clean workspace for the more difficult task of constructing paragraphs, arguments, and briefs.
Killing Me Softly with Your Song: How Your Audience Goes About Understanding You
Only 3 - 5 percent of adults primarily learn conceptually, yet most lawyers prepare their material almost exclusively for their conceptual learners.
A Deaf Litigator Reconciles Her Differences
Many lawyers feel they are not capable in some way., but we would all do well to remember that each of us comes with our own need for accommodations.
Who's Zoomin’ Who?
Zoom kept the wheels on during the pandemic, but it seems as though the wheels may now be coming off. Zoom is expedient, but it does not encourage excellence.
An Interview with Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo
How does someone with aspirations to become a judge best present oneself to the world? In the case of Judge Vilardo, it was a compelling combination of quiet brilliance and disarming humility.
Columns
First and Last Impressions
For many clients, their first impression of our civil justice system is that it is expensive, likely more expensive than they can afford.
Stage Notes: Lessons from the Theater to Apply in Producing Your Case
By telling a case's story clearly, efficiently, and, when appropriate, dramatically, effective advocates can ensure the best chances for success.
The Successful Trial Lawyer's Pre-Suit Case Plan
Crafting a thoughtful pre-suit case plan will bear fruit. Put a pre-suit case plan to work for your clients today.
Hard Heads, Soft Skills: Two Traits to Survive as a Young Litigator
For young lawyers to succeed, it is not enough to teach them technical skills; it is just as important to mentor them on less concrete, but equally essential, soft skills.
The Upside-Down World of Privilege Waivers
It's time to reframe the rules on attorney-client-privilege waivers and realign them with the purpose the privilege was meant to serve.
What Litigators Can Teach Americans Once They (Re-)Learn it Themselves
Today, senior litigators are wont to teach their younger colleagues that litigation is war. It’s not.
Work and Play
Even though we’re not desperate migrants struggling to our land of opportunity, lawyers shouldn’t minimize the stress of our jobs.
Ethical Signing and Notarizing
Too many lawyers get in trouble for cutting corners or making misrepresentations regarding the signing and notarization of documents.
Headnotes
Visual Presentation Helps Juries See the Law
Research indicates that somewhere between 65 and 80 percent of the world's population may be visual learners.
Partisan Judges
Today, there’s a widespread sense that at least some of the sitting justices act unconstrained by long-accepted norms of impartiality.