TrialNovember 2009 had a review by Russ Herman about a book, The Articulate Advocate written by Brian Johnson & Marsha Hunter. Russ has published on persuasion and, as nationally known trial lawyer, has lectured about argument, communication and persuasion. I have not read the book, but some of Russ’s comments about the book caught my eye. Here are some of the things Russ reports that the book recommends and I thought important: making panoramic eye contact with all the jurors…
I read an interview with Thom Hartmann that was not only politically interesting, but had some good insight on communications. Hartmann has written a book Cracking the Code involving communications. Regarding communications he noted that: "[techniques] have to do with pacing and using different modalities as you speak." That’s a fundamental law of communication: it’s not what you say, it’s what is heard that counts. From a political communications standpoint, he says the Democrats have had really stupid advisor’s for…
I am on a message board with plaintiff lawyers across the country in an invitational group I belong to who exchange ideas. An excellent trial lawyer in the South starts a trial Monday with some underlying issues that concerned her. I was interested in all the different ideas and approaches lawyers suggested. Some of these suggestions indicated to me that the lawyer making the suggestion thought that voir should involve carefully worded questions to convince and persuade. This is just…