Over a decade ago, I wrote an article for this blog titled, Could Surprise Be One of Your Best Visual Persuasion Tools? In it, I made the case that well-executed surprise — not ambush, but carefully designed moments of cognitive disruption — can be one of the most powerful tools a litigator brings into the courtroom.
At Persuadius, we specialize in transforming complexity into clarity—especially using litigation graphics. Whether it’s a demonstrative exhibit that makes a technical expert accessible or a timeline that crystallizes causation, the right visual can make all the difference.
During his lifetime, I often reached out to Steve Jobs, the ex-CEO and co-founder of Apple, seeking business insights. While he never replied, I always sensed a shared perspective. I am confident that his guidance would have always emphasized the importance of prioritizing quality to attract the ideal clientele. This principle held true during the inception of Animators at Law, which later evolved into A2L Consulting and now continues as Persuadius. My deep-rooted admiration for Apple dates back to before the groundbreaking launch of the Mac in 1984. Through thick and thin, my unwavering love for Macs and the company has been a constant. I attribute a significant portion of my success to the Mac, as its accessibility to graphics empowered me to delve into courtroom animation while in law school in the early 1990s. This initial spark later blossomed into establishing a trial graphics firm, which then transitioned into a jury consulting enterprise, a trial technology firm and ultimately a litigation consulting powerhouse.
Explore the significance of compelling trial graphics in antitrust litigation and how they can contribute to successful litigation. Understanding the Power of Visual Persuasion Visual persuasion is a powerful tool in antitrust litigation. It involves the use of trial graphics to present complex information in a visually appealing and easily understandable manner. Research has shown that humans are highly visual beings, and we process visual information much faster than text. By leveraging this innate visual processing capability, effective graphics can significantly enhance the persuasiveness of legal arguments in typically complex antitrust cases.
by Tony Klapper (former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting At first glance, antitrust cases seem like unlikely venues for the successful use of litigation graphics. Antitrust law has the reputation for being arcane, abstract and statistical, and to some extent the reputation is justified. After all, this area of law deals with the workings of supply and demand and other economic questions, and the issue is often whether competition (or potential competition) in a market has been suppressed in some way. These matters aren’t remotely within the daily experience of jurors. How can a litigator use graphics in antitrust cases to make them make sense? It can be done. Earlier this year, a well-written article in Law360 (paywall) noted that “explaining the details of an antitrust case to a jury can be a daunting task, but lawyers who build a compelling narrative and communicate with a straightforward style stand a good chance of bringing the jury around to their client’s point of view, experts say.” The article suggested that “many jurors are visual learners, so economic evidence is most likely to stick when the spoken testimony is supplemented with visual aids.” We agree.
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.
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting
by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting The antitrust laws have been around for more than 100 years, and they have never been more relevant than they are today. Whether it’s a question of the interplay between patents and antitrust, a hospital merger, a high-tech acquisition, or an alleged conspiracy to fix prices, companies need to know how to defend themselves in antitrust cases. Often, they also need to know how to pursue such cases as a plaintiff as well.
Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting
Timelines can be extremely helpful in many types of trials. Whenever the order in which events occurred is a significant issue, or a jury or judge needs to understand how a story began and ended, a timeline is appropriate. As Texas attorney and legal technology expert Jeffrey S. Lisson has written [pdf], “Timelines are the most effective way to give a judge or jury a sense of who did what, when, and to whom. Just as bar charts and graphs help the uninitiated make sense out of a sea of facts and figures, timelines show the relationship between events. Timelines generally show events laid out on a horizontal, constant chronological scale. Events – the writing of a memo, the reading of an x-ray, or the shooting of a gun – are listed in the order they occurred. While tables of dates and facts require effort to understand, timelines are instantly clear.”
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