by Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting We strongly advocate that counsel must use a visual presentation to support his or her oral argument at trial (and anywhere they need to be persuasive). This most commonly happens during opening statements and closing arguments at trial and the dominant format for such presentations is PowerPoint – a very good tool. However, like cutting your own hair or doing your own dental work, we must again caution you that you must really know what you’re doing because your case may depend on it. On January 22, 2015, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington published its opinion in State v. Walker, overturning the State Prosecutor’s conviction of an accused murderer because the attorney went too far with his demonstrative evidence in closing. A murderer has potentially been freed because, in the Court’s view, counsel was inflammatory in his presentation and “appealed to passion and prejudice” of the jury. Certainly as zealous advocates we do want to appeal to the passion of jurors on some level. We need their emotions to be in sync with the law and evidence, but what might be too much so as to prejudice the proceedings? Let’s explore the Washington Supreme Court’s opinion to see.
by Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting Inter Partes Review, or IPR, has drastically changed the way we litigate patent infringement in the U.S. In big-budget patent cases, it is now almost inevitable that an IPR will be requested (and likely granted). The process is supposed to take no longer than a year to complete, but under current case law that’s a year’s delay in the district court case. Moreover, the odds are that any patent that enters IPR will not leave it unscathed. So, whether you need to win an IPR to save your client’s patent’s claims or to insure your client against infringement allegations, the bottom line is that it’s critically important. And, you need to win. Here are what I believe to be five important tips for improving your chances of victory once you get to the oral argument stage at the end of an IPR. At that point, you’ll need to convince Administrative Patent Judges that you’re the most reasonable person in the room and what you’ve said throughout the IPR “just makes sense.”
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting We East Coasters have a love-hate relationship with snow, and the snow moving into the Northeast today may be one for the record books - particularly around Boston. It will dominate the news for days - and it probably should. An incredibly large number of people will be impacted by this particular storm. Under or next to that red line on the map where the storm is forecast to hit, you'll find roughly 20% of the U.S. population living on roughly 3% of the country's land, half of the hedge funds, one third of the headquarters of Fortune 500 firms and — in the states under the red line, about 35% of the country's and, hard as it may be to believe, about 25% of the world's lawyers! A blizzard disrupts our lives. It can feel tedious, it creates confusion, and it generates a lot of hard work — sort of like a trial. Not all trials are blizzard-like, but some surely are. Here are 21 ways some trials are like a blizzard and how to avoid white-out conditions in your courtroom.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting One month ago I wrote an article titled 9 Things Outside Litigation Counsel Say About In-house Counsel, and we recently included it in our free In-House Counsel Litigation Toolkit e-book. It is a popular piece read by several thousand people so far. Today's article looks at what is being said by in-house counsel about outside litigation counsel. I've spent a lot of time talking with in-house counsel from large companies over the past two months. They have a lot to say about outside litigation counsel that I don't normally see reported in the popular press.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting There are many annual surveys that help rank law firms, specialty legal training programs and legal vendors and consultants. The annual Best of The National Law Journal is the crown jewel of these surveys. A2L Consulting is honored to have been nominated and voted best litigation graphics provider and best jury consultants in this and other polls many times before. By voting in such surveys, I believe we make our industry better by acknowledging those who contribute to it the most. While I would certainly be thrilled, honored, and grateful it if you would vote for A2L on questions #58 and #61 in the categories of Best Demonstrative Evidence Provider and Best Jury Consultants, I think simply voting is very valuable for all of us. Here is a link to the survey that is only open for a little bit more time. Note, not all questions have to be answered, but you do have to click the "Done" button at the end. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2015BestofNLJ
As a CEO for nearly 30 years, I understand the importance of job satisfaction for employees. Throughout my career, I have witnessed firsthand the impact that a positive work environment can have on employee morale and productivity. Employees thrive in an atmosphere that fosters collaboration, respect, and open communication.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting It's been quite a week at A2L Consulting, and I want to share three pieces of good news and some valuable resources with you to round out the week. Unbelievably, we crossed the 6,000 (free) subscribers threshold this week at The Litigation Consulting Report blog. I say "unbelievably" because we only just crossed the 5,000 subscriber mark three months ago. Clearly, publishing valuable information for the litigation marketplace is both something we love doing, and the marketplace loves reading our articles, ebooks and watching our webinars. We remain grateful that the ABA honored us as one of the top 100 blogs in the legal industry. To celebrate this milestone, we are re-releasing our Top-50 Articles of All Time E-Book for free with no form to fill out. Just click here or on the graphic next to this article, and you'll be able to download the book instantly. These are 50 of our best articles out of 400 that we have published so far. It's a great resource for lawyers, litigators, in-house counsel and litigation support professional alike. I also had a chance this week to be interviewed by famed litigator Mitch Jackson as part of his Human.Social project. The interview largely focuses on why A2L produces this blog and how it simultaneously creates value for our readers and for us as a business. Here is the recorded interview below:
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting Seven of the top ten web searches that lead to a visit to our website in 2014 were related to voir dire or jury selection. These are topics that we write about frequently and assist clients with often at A2L Consulting. To respond to the obvious demand for information about voir dire, we are today releasing our latest free e-book, The Voir Dire Handbook. This 111 page book is comprised of 37 articles about jury selection, voir dire and related topics. Like our 20+ other litigation, persuasion, psychology and presentation-focused e-books, The Voir Dire Handbook is a free download with no strings attached.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting Not every page, blog article, webinar or e-book on A2L Consulting's site is right for everyone. As the saying goes, what is everyone's favorite radio station? WII – FM, of course. Otherwise known as "what's in it for me?" With hundreds of articles, dozens of e-books and hundreds of other pages, A2L's website has over 2,500 pages of valuable content. Sometimes, finding materials that are specific to your litigation practice area or need can be a challenge with all the available options. You can search A2L's site or even browse by topic area using a topic list in the sidebar of every blog post. In spite of this, I still hear from a lot of people who wonder whether we have experience working in their specific practice area or where they can find useful information related to their practice. I wrote this article to highlight some very useful information organized by practice area below. I've broken down the practice areas into 14 topics that cover most of the work we do. The alphabetical list with links under each topic should prove helpful when looking for the information most relevant to you.
In today's complex legal landscape, seeking guidance and support during times of legal battles is a natural instinct. People often turn to their close circle of advisors and friends for advice and support. While it is understandable to seek comfort and reassurance from those we trust, it is important to exercise caution when relying solely on the opinions of these individuals.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting It's been another unbelievable year at A2L Consulting. I'm very proud to see us again be voted best jury consultants and best litigation graphics consultants. More than 20,000 free e-books and webinars were viewed on A2LC.com. Incredibly, there were more than 300,000 pages viewed our site this year. About two-thirds of those visits were to our award-winning Litigation Consulting Report blog that now boosts 5,800 free subscribers (that's more than 2,200 new subscribers since last year!). On that blog, we will have published 115 articles by year's end. It's a few less than last year, but we have to confess, we were really busy being litigation consultants this year! Each year I list the very best articles based on your readership, and this year 14 articles stand out as the top-14 for 2014. Each of these articles was read by thousands of people, and some were read by tens of thousands.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting In recent years, I have seen in-house counsel become increasingly involved in litigation. Gone are the days when in-house would simply hire the top name litigator and hope for the best. Today, in-house counsel help determine trial strategy, they closely manage budget, they assist in choosing litigation support consultants, and they sometimes take a leadership role on the trial team. However, since trials are relatively rare and not many in-house counsel are trial lawyers themselves, how are in-house counsel supposed to effectively contribute in a litigation environment beyond simply managing the purse-strings? Enter this new and free book, The In-House Counsel Litigation Toolkit, a first of its kind for A2L Consulting. We have published more than a dozen wildly popular books over the last several years that have been collectively downloaded more than 100,000 times. However, this new 172-page book is the first A2L book designed for in-house counsel and their outside counsel. It contains 50 hand-curated articles focused on litigation and the role of modern in-house counsel.
by Ken Lopez Founder/CEO A2L Consulting Most would agree that mock trials are not conducted as often as they should be. After all, why wouldn't you want to learn what kinds of jurors you will see on your jury, understand what works about your case and what doesn't, understand what works about your opponent's case and what doesn't, gauge your settlement position, provide outside counsel a chance to practice and gain many more benefits all for a tiny fraction of the cost of what is often at stake? Is a mock trial mandatory? Of course not—and neither is having someone else cut your hair. Both are entirely optional expenses, but both are very good ideas.
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