How Memory Impacts Client Interviews

12 February, 2016

Part of being a good lawyer is being a good psychologist, and a good psychologist understands the power, fragility and pitfalls of memory. How often do you find yourself questioning your client’s narrative? Watch them struggle to relate details of their experiences, or heard them change the story? ...

Legal News Update: February 10, 2016

10 February, 2016

Let’s take a look at this week in legal news. The FBI joins in the Flint Michigan water contamination investigation A multi-agency team has been activated to investigate the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced t...

Poker in the Courtroom – Tells Part 2: Rejection and Acceptance

5 February, 2016

Can poker skills give you a leg up in jury selection? How can we put this delicately: If you screw up jury selection, your entire case is screwed. Trials are costly and stakes are high, and if you’ve let a bad apple slip into your jury, it’s possible nothing will save you. And yet you have a limited...

Psychology and Clients Part 1: Naïve Realism

29 January, 2016

You’re meeting a new client today; a father whose son was injured while playing with a toy. Like the excellent lawyer you are, you’re prepared. Due diligence? Check. Start on time and with a firm handshake? Check. You introduce yourself and find out that a good friend referred him, and y...

Poker in the Courtroom – Tells part 1

22 January, 2016

What if you could read the opposing party’s posture and gestures to know if they had a strong case or were bluffing? What if you could become aware of your own ‘tells’ – and even learn to shape them to control what you communicate to others? I’ve won over twenty championships and millions of dollar...

The Brick and Mortar of Building a Case

16 January, 2016

Winning cases don’t always look like winners when they walk in the room. Sometimes they look hopeless until a dedicated attorney settles in to pour a foundation, frame the arguments, and fill out the full picture. This is a story of one of those cases that gets passed from lawyer to lawyer, an...