Henry Ward Beecher: “Not until human nature is other than what it is, will the function of the living voice -- the greatest force on earth among men -- cease...
Author: Roy Black
Final Argument: Classroom Training
"If ever there was a country where eloquence was a power, it is the United States." 8 Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson 128 (1883). Nowhere is...
Failure to Practice
Preparation: More is better. Much more is much better. You never get to a point where you can let up. Never. --Tom Peters
Obsession
This is one of my favorite quotes: “You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who...
Zimmerman Opening: Recency
As I wrote in my last post, recency, the last words the jury hears, carries persuasive power. John Guy made the most of it in his concluding sentences: “We are...
Zimmerman: Primacy & Recency
My advice to trial lawyers – throw out the trial advocacy books filled with old wives' tales, and study human behavior. The opening arguments in the Zimmerman trial are a...
Zimmerman: The Golden Minute
The best examples for teaching trial advocacy come from actual trials. Concrete always trumps abstract for learning. The George Zimmerman trial opening statements provided a lot of grist for my...
Criminal Law: Quo Vadis?
Is it time to start lamentations on the death of the classic tough-as-nails criminal lawyer?
Business Books: Steve Jobs
It is time to fashion a new approach to learning trial skills. It is time to throw out those hoary old trial advocacy books. It is time to reject the...
Blogging Again
I have ignored this blog for the past two months because I was acutely tied up – the vicious battle for a new trial in the Goodman case, several intense...