CLE for Litigators

When you want outstanding and engaging CLE Training for your attorneys, look to The Winning Litigator. We will come directly to your firm with Continuing Legal Education training customized to your needs, budget and time frame. In-House Training can be delivered in shorter sessions of a few hours, or in sessions lasting a day, a weekend, or longer–depending on the needs of your firm.

A good deposition can win a case, while a bad one can easily destroy it.  This CLE seminar will supercharge your attorneys to take effective depositions to maximize opportunities at settlement and trial.  Topics include:

• 10 Deposition Fails
• Rethinking Deposition Planning
• Setting Deposition Goals
• The Structure of Questions
• 4 Different Questioning Patterns
• Deposing Technical People, Experts and Company Leaders
• Special Techniques for the 30(b)(6) Corporate Designee
• Getting and Keeping Prize Answers
• Attorneys Behaving Badly: Managing Difficult Opposing Counsel
• Deposing Problem Witnesses
• Strategies for Working with Documents
• Techniques for Taking and Defending Video Depositions
• 20 Creative Methods of Leveraging Deposition Testimony

Why are some witnesses easy to work with, and others practically impossible?  The answer lies in the learning and communication styles of both the witness and counsel.  This illuminating seminar will have your attorneys rethinking completely the manner in which they prepare and represent witnesses at depositions, hearings and trial.  Topics for this CLE include:

• The Ideal Witness
• The First Big Mistake Attorneys Make When Prepping Witnesses
• Witness Learning Styles
• Attorney Communication Styles
• Throwing Away the Lengthy Witness Rule Book
• Listening to the Witness to Learn Witness Management
• Explaining the Testimony Process a New Way
• Teaching the Witness a Simple Method for Testifying
• Practicing with the Witness
• Adapting Your Methods to Truly Problem Witnesses
• Techniques for Decreasing Witness and Attorney Anxiety

Litigation graphics and exhibit boards are an essential tool of any successful litigator.  We’ll show you strategies for creating effective litigation graphics, even if you are not an artist.

• Determining when to use litigation graphics
• Planning for your use of graphics for mediation and trial
• Producing dynamic litigation graphics — even on a tight budget
• Discovering Tools and applications for creating litigation graphics
• Choosing color palettes and stock images for demonstratives
• Working with a graphic artist
• Using litigation graphics creatively
• Maximizing the persuasive value of litigation graphics

Additionally, participants are invited to bring for discussion and critique graphics they are working on, or have used in the past.

In this fast-paced CLE session, we’ll reveal 27 effective Persuasion Strategies for winning over judges, juries and mediators – even your opposing counsel.   Some of these strategies include:

• Theme building strategies
• Strategies in packaging and presenting evidence
• Strategies in choosing case vocabulary and rhetoric
• Strategies in developing and presenting a mediation statement
• Strategies to get juries, judges and mediators to take the right notes
• Strategies for examining witnesses
• Opening Statement and Closing Argument strategies
• Personal presentation and public speaking strategies

Whether you litigate jury or bench trials, arbitrations, or administrative proceedings, you’ll take away an excellent group of Persuasion Strategies and techniques that you can apply immediately in your practice.

In this CLE, your attorneys will learn strategies to persuade Mediators and Opposing Counsel.  Topics include:

• The Persuasive Way to Prepare for Mediation
• Drafting a Winning Mediation Statement
• The Mediation PowerPoint
• Use of Experts and Visuals
• Bracketing and other Advanced Mediation Techniques
• Leveraging Evidence at the Mediation
• Persuading with the Law During Mediation

This CLE is a different approach to the study of Ethics.  Instead of focusing primarily on the Rules of Professional Conduct, we’ll help your attorneys understand the ethical decision making process and how to build an ethical culture in your firm or organization.  Topics include:

• Three Theories of Ethical Decision Making
• The 8-Step Process of Ethical Decision Making
• Lateral Leadership Principles in Your Law Practice
• Building an Ethical Culture in Your Firm
• Case Studies of Firms Gone Wrong
• Defining Your Ethical Compass

A theater and courtroom have many common characteristics. Litigators who understand the inherent theatricality of the courtroom have a decided advantage over those attorneys. Topics for this innovative and fast-paced CLE include:

• What the Theater and a Courtroom Have in Common
• Understanding Your Audience
• Good Storytelling for Trial Attorneys
• Developing Character Arcs
• Acting for Attorneys
• Breathing and Movement for Attorneys
• Theater Archetypes for Jurors
• 4 Basic Plotlines That All Jurors Understand
• Creating Visual and Vocal Variety
• Using Scene Buttons in the Courtroom
• Managing Plot Twists in Court
• Stage Management of Details in a Trial
• Creating Theatricality without Phoniness
• Special Challenges of Long Speeches: Power Openings and Closings

An effective Opening Statement and Closing Argument are indispensable to a favorable verdict. Attorneys in this CLE will take a new look at what makes these two important moments in a trial crucial.  Even if your attorneys are experienced litigators, you can be sure that they will leave this CLE with creative and successful strategies to hone their trial skills and maximize their opportunity for better case outcomes.  Topics in this CLE include:

• Starting the Planning the Opening Statement and Closing Argument
• Opening Statement and Closing Argument Checklist
• Strategies for Using PowerPoint and Other Presentation Tools
• Developing Your Narrative
• Road Maps and Exhibit Chaining
• Using Visuals that Resonate with Your Audience
• Choosing Vocabulary and Rhetoric
• Making Your Audience Watch and Listen, then Take the Right Notes
• Openings and Closings in a Bench Trial
• Practicing Your Opening Statement and Closing Argument
• Managing Time in Openings and Closings
• Managing Volumes of Evidence

Jury trials pose unique challenges for litigators.  This CLE will have your attorneys thinking strategically and creatively about how to connect with the men and women deciding whether your client loses or wins.

• Laying the Groundwork for Jury Communication
• Experimenting with Themes and Rhetoric
• Choosing the Case Vocabulary
• Using Jury Research Effectively
• Looking for Resonant Imagery
• Planning the Trial Around the Jury
• Avoiding 10 Critical Voir Dire Mistakes
• Using Road Maps and Exhibit Chaining
• Hidden Strategies that Affect Jurors
• Connecting with Jurors in Court
• Leveraging the Power of the Judge
• Things Attorneys Do That Make Jurors Irate
• Making Sure Jurors Take the Right Notes
• Letting Jurors Discover the Case
• Impediments to Jury Communication
• Jury “Subplots”

We will customize CLE-style training for your new associates or for summer associates and law clerks in your office, according to your needs and budget.  Topics might include:

• Nuts and Bolts of Pre-Trial Written Discovery
• Deposition Training and Planning
• Trial and Hearing Planning
• Systems of Organization
• Witness Interviewing
• Working with Legal Assistants and Administrative Staff
• Time Management