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I.   Persuasion and Advocacy for Lawyers and Law Students
II.  How to Go Directly from Law School Into the Practice of Law Without a Job
III. Power Tools for Lawyers
IV. Direct and Cross–Examination

I. Persuasion and Advocacy for Lawyers and Law Students

What makes lawyers sound different from other people when they speak? Why are we expected to be accomplished public speakers? Is that a good thing? You bet it is! The best advocates know how to use simple, public speaking techniques to deliver their message, to tell their client’s story, in a meaningful, memorable way.

We show you how to distill appealing themes from confusing batches of facts. We help you abandon your “working” vocabulary in favor of your “actual” vocabulary, which is much larger and richer. Students will expand their comfort zones “on their feet,” enabling them to employ body language, voice modulation, repetition, eye contact and other tools of persuasion as they speak extemporaneously and without notes.

The word “advocate” implies “lawyer.” Shouldn’t your students and lawyers become the best advocates they can be?

II. How to Go Directly from Law School Into the Practice of Law Without Getting a Job

“Lawyers don’t need jobs; we just need work!”

“There is nothing so complicated about the practice of law that you can’t
learn it on the job.”

Drawing from Marc’s popular book, “$olo Contendere—How to Go Directly from Law School into the Practice of Law Without Getting a Job,” we offer seminars that are crammed with caveats, suggestions, stratagem and solutions for the issues and problems that confront solo attorneys, particularly those who have never practiced law before.

We explore how to choose an office arrangement, how to find both lawyer and lay clients, and how to get paid. We point out ethical and practical pitfalls, and we show how to avoid them. Our approach is defensive, focusing on how to avoid problems for both lawyer and client alike.

While much of the information will be valuable to experienced lawyers and attorneys who are NOT solos, we emphasize many points that practicing lawyers already know, but which “newbies” need to hear. Of course, you can always buy the book.....

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III. Power Tools for Lawyers

Medical doctors are expected to have certain tools in their tool boxes: They should be able to diagnose common ailments and discuss medical conditions in precise, objective terms. They should be able to treat bloody wounds without yielding to nausea. They should know how to talk to people with grave, or mortal, conditions.

Lawyers, too, have toolboxes. Our tools are different. We are supposed to be able to analyze emotionally-charged situations with clarity and objectivity. We are expected to interest an audience when we speak and to speak more precisely and memorably than other mortals. We are the ones who must not get flustered when a judge, an adversary or a client throws us a curve. Lawyers should be able to “think on their feet” and command respect by their presence, even when seated. And these are learnable skills.

These tools come naturally to only a very few lawyers, but all of us must have them in our toolboxes. We help you to develop these skills, so that you can:

~ Seem like the smartest person at the table, even before you speak.
~ Sound like the best lawyer in the room.
~ Earn the respect of your audience
~ Employ proven persuasive techniques.
~ Make other people to want YOU as their lawyer.

Our Seminars

“Powertools for Lawyers” incorporates the knowledge and techniques that lawyers and law students must have in order to best represent clients (and our profession). In a quick-moving, humorous talk, audiences share a wealth of information, and they take home tools and techniques that will enhance their professional skills forever.

OUR WORKSHOPS

“Powertools for Lawyers” workshops are fun, interactive workshops for groups of three to twelve attorneys or law students. Using simple, but not-always-easy drills and exercises we coax the class into using the techniques and tools of persuasion, charisma and credibility in all of their oral communication. Classes leave feeling empowered and enabled. The skills they develop are permanent.

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IV. Direct and Cross–Examination

Any judge will tell you that many attorneys, even well-reputed lawyers with years at the bar, do not know how to question a witness properly. They get flustered on Direct Examination, when their questions get circuitous. They ask open-ended questions on Cross, inviting a deluge of unwanted or harmful testimony. They ask leading questions on direct and don’t even know it. They “tie the knot” on favorable testimony too soon, leaving the witness with embarrassing opportunities to score points.

There are very few rules for a great direct-examination or cross. Most attorneys do not know them. Our workshops and seminars focus on the techniques and different philosophies of interrogating witnesses. We show you how to tell your client’s story through the mouths of your witnesses and those of your adversary.

Law students find that few skills are more fun to learn than how to drive a witness through cross-examination with a cadence, manner, and strategy that sounds like Perry Mason.

Law firms find that the rules of direct and cross have changed over the years, and some of the most effective new methods are not being used by their best trial lawyers. Students and lawyers alike will take with them techniques and suggestions that will last their careers.

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