Persuasion

Threat is an ingredient to winning. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer and martial arts practitioner, I know this to be very true. That is why I repeatedly advise clients not to plead guilty if the prosecutor is not prepared to go to trial. That is...

Great lawyer Gerry Spence wins trials by embracing and revealing his entire self, warts, fears, vision, astounding ability, oration, and all. For the entire month of August 1995, I was in Wyoming at the then one-year-old Trial Lawyers College, at Gerry's beautiful Wyoming Thunderhead ranch ten...

A key part of criminal defense victory is for the lawyer to be convinced that the client should be acquitted, to feel that in the lawyer's heart, guts and bones, and to persuasively convey those feelings to the judge and jury.

Criminal defense and persuasion benefit tremendously from a clear mirror. That mirror can be the magic mirror, where others are not likely to do any better than we give them the faith to do. That mirror can also be the spiritual mirror of the heart...

Everyone gets angry, at least sometimes. Anger, rooted in fear, is weakening and even debilitating. However, it also is debilitating for us to beat up on ourselves for getting angry, and to beat up on ourselves for anything. We must continue on the positive and...

Last night, my son and I attended Tape Face's only appearance in the Washington, D.C., area for his current tour. I had been looking forward to this performance very much, and even more to spending a weeknight on the town with my son. Tape Face,...

When a client urges the necessity of my destroying an opposing witness on cross examination, I respond that the backlash from destroying the opposing witness can be much more harmful than my telling the defense story through cross examination, bringing out important evidentiary points, and...

Many criminal & DWI defendants at first may feel like they have been thrown to the lions. Beyond the veneer of smiling prosecutors, police and judges in the courthouse, is a criminal justice system ready to eat alive those who go to court alone or...

On this Valentine's Day, I recall that the 1995 Trial Lawyers College soon became one big hug fest at times. I did not embrace the idea right away, but have benefited tremendously in life from focusing on the path of love, compassion, generosity, service and...

At the Trial Lawyers College, I learned that its founder Gerry Spence is at once an incredibly powerful persuader, very in touch with his strengths and weaknesses, and ready to reveal his vulnerabilities. This started out as simply with Gerry's voicing his disappointment that "Nobody...