The Litigation Consulting Report

Compared with even the largest law firms, we go to trial a lot. After all, even the busiest litigators in major firms try at most 30 cases in their lifetimes. We consult on many more cases than that in a year. Indeed, we have spent 20 years going to trial, and our clients are mostly major law firms that are working on very high-stakes cases.

by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting At A2L Consulting, we are very interested in sharing valuable information about the litigation consulting industry with the thousands of monthly readers of our Litigation Consulting Report blog. Some of our readers are among the nation’s top litigators, some run litigation support departments, some work every day on the challenging and difficult task of putting together trial exhibits, and some are law students and other interested observers. All show a strong interest in the topics we routinely write about: Trial tactics Jury consulting Litigation graphics Trial technology and its best uses Leadership for lawyers And much more

Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting

Some online estimates say that about 30 million PowerPoint presentations are given every day. That number seems more than a bit high, and it’s hard to find a credible source for it. But let’s say it’s off by a factor of 80 percent, so that just one-fifth of that many presentations are given each day. Still, that would be 6 million PowerPoints.

by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting

Bullet points, especially when they’re found in PowerPoint slides, have become the cliché of the trial graphics and presentation worlds. There’s no good reason to use them, and plenty of reasons not to. For many, bullet points signal a boring presentation is about to begin or one is about to hear a presenter who, like someone on a vintage cell phone, is detached from modern presentation style. Bullets are not just aesthetically bothersome. The A2L Consulting trial graphics team, trained in cutting-edge theories of conveying information, believes that text-heavy presentations riddled with bullet points also do harm to the persuasion process. Garr Reynolds, a leading writer on the art and science of presentation, says in Presentation Zen, “Bullet-point filled slides with reams of text become a barrier to good communication.” Chris Atherton, a cognitive psychologist who has scientifically studied bullet points, writes, “Bullets don't kill, bullet points do.”

Have you ever seen the President of the United States give a PowerPoint presentation? Probably not. But he's actually quite good at it, as you will see below.

In a previous article I told you about five surprises I found in moving from my previous position as an IP litigator to my current position as a litigation consultant. After a few more weeks on the job and a bit more day-to-day experience as Managing Director, Litigation Consulting for A2L, I find that there is another big surprise: the amount of thought, time and work that goes into each and every trial graphic.

Whenever a litigation team presents a document in a graphic way to the jury or other fact-finder at trial, there is an occasion for a document call-out. A “document call-out” is a term of art that means taking a document that is in evidence at trial and highlighting some key portion of it for easy reading and to draw the viewer's attention to the key language.

In most trial presentations, the trial timeline is often the single most critical demonstrative exhibit used at trial. Much like an effective opening statement, the trial timeline: Orients the viewer; Provides a framework around which facts can be organized; Allows for easy comparison of events occurring in sequence or simultaneously; Builds trust and credibility by sharing a believable story; and even persuades when built correctly.