Persuasion

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the need to engage one’s opponent, the judge and the jury. Here are a few more thoughts on the topic: – How can we persuade without engaging our audience? How do we engage without listening to what is...

Lately, I have gotten many new weekly ideas for persuasion and trial combat, through weekend t’ai chi push hands gatherings, daily solo practice, and ongoing viewing of videos and reading of books by today’s and yesterday’s t’ai chi masters. Here are some recent ideas: Learned at...

On May 25, I wrote about Jan Diepersloot’s Warriors of Stillness, This book further says: "Both in the conduct of his life and in the methods of his teachings, Master Cai [Song Fang] epitomizes how knowing one’s own center and that of those we come in...

Once again, yesterday, I learned great lessons at the Capitol Hill t’ai chi-sensing hands/push hands practice, including the following practice for sensing hands: – Move hands little and with little force. – Connect elbows with pusher. – Connect palm to pusher’s wrist. – Push against opponent’s...

In the days before Al Gore discovered the Internet, my law school legal research and writing instructor introduced us to the tomes — called Shepard’s Citations — through which we painstakingly checked whether court cases being cited by us had been overturned, reversed, or affirmed, or...

Courthouses and courthouse procedures expose parties and their lawyers to being seen and heard by the juries doing things they do not intend to be seen and heard doing, including conversation in restrooms, criminal defendants in chains before being brought to the courtroom, and parties...

  The Chinese script for the character "mu," which means nothing. Recently, a prosecutor — not too many years out of law school, for whatever that is worth — kept talking and talking and repeating and repeating to the judge during a bench trial. The...

My law practice keeps me away from the outdoors too often, except when I drive to and from courthouses, jails, and incident scenes. On this glorious day, my three-year-old boy and I visited Potomac Overlook Park for the first time. The park is just four...

Often I feel an ill-placed center of gravity sought or accepted by too many judges. Of course judges bear the brunt of overloaded dockets and postponed cases by at best feeling like a grocery store cashier with never-ending lines of customers mixed in with inconsiderate...

The powerhouse of John Johnson and Gerry Spence (Aug. 1995, Thunderhead Ranch) Lately, more videos of trial great Gerry Spence — who founded the Trial Lawyers College, which I attended in 1995 — are getting to YouTube. Here are the most notable videos: – Cross examining,...