Persuasion

Will Rogers would have been a great trial lawyer. He never met a person he did not like, and had a very optimistic disposition. By contrast, when I entered law school, I saw a significant chunk of the world’s population as ready in a heartbeat...

Recently, I have had to re-examine my stereotyping of prosecutors, judges and police, with the following events: A week ago, a Fairfax prosecutor with whom I get along with fine — we are able to disagree agreeably, at that — invited me to be his...

Many prosecutors and police (and perhaps too many judges) apparently see criminal defense lawyers as a curious mix of being part of the legal establishment — “one of us”, in the minds of many of them — who also represent “them”/”the other”/the person to be...

Soft is not weak when applied in terms of active relaxation. Collapsed is weak. Brittle is weak. Stiff is weak. Softness enables listening and winning; loudness deafens; hardness makes brittle and weak. Softness puts opponents and others more at ease — and open to the...

I went from public school to college, to a Wall Street-based bank for a year, to law school, to a law firm, to the Maryland public defender’s office, to another law firm, to my own duo law firm, to my current solo law firm. Too...

When I studied in 1979 for my certificate to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation ("CPR"), the instructor never told us that as we compress the chest during the administration of CPR, some people will have vomit come out of their mouths, the same mouths in which we...

My close friend and teacher Trudy Morse — a great grandmother who learned many key life lessons before I ever was born — once wrote in thanks to those who supported her along the path of life. Local taijiquan teacher David Walls Kaufman, who very generously...

The National Criminal Defense College and the Trial Lawyers College heavily focus on storytelling throughout the trial. Most people organize their thoughts and decision making along storytelling lines. Most law schools try in a huge number of respects to teach students to unlearn their humanity,...

This blog entry is a reprint from an earlier posting, as I wind down this week’s vacation. This morning, a gaggle of geese crossing a busy street gave drivers a chance to step back from their Friday hustle-bustle.. John Johnson emphasized to me the importance...

Earlier this month (June 2012), I unplugged from email and the phone except for a handful of communications with my family and office, for the apparently first Cultivating Balance law world retreat at the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York, where anything but...