The Litigation Consulting Report

by Theresa D. Villanueva, Esq. Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting

by Ken Lopez Founder & CEO A2L Consulting

by Theresa Villanueva, Esq. Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting

by Theresa D. Villanueva, Esq. Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting

By: Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting

By Ryan H. Flax (Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting A2L Consulting

Please see an updated 2014 version of this article here: http://www.a2lc.com/blog/bid/72290/Planning-For-Courtroom-Persuasion-Use-a-Two-Track-Trial-Strategy By Ryan H. Flax (Former) Litigation Consultant What I’m about to encourage will seem elementary to the best litigators, but I’m writing from experience as a litigation consultant and a litigator when I say that many trial attorneys fail to properly develop the necessary two-track strategy for their case -- and lose because of it.

For any trial lawyer, writing an opening or closing statement is one of the best parts of a trial. It lets us use our writing skills, speaking skills, and persuasion skills like no other moment of trial. I happen to believe that the opening statement is the single most important part of a trial.

Usually, the vast majority of the time that a litigation consultant will spend with a trial team focuses on jury selection, mock trials, witness preparation, opening statement and expert testimony. A litigation consultant will usually spend less than ten percent of his or her time in supporting a trial team in its development of the closing argument. This is very curious, because closing arguments are a critical part of any trial. They are the last words jurors will hear out of your mouth, and they are the punctuation mark on your case and the story you have developed.

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.”