Gerry Spence and I met a couple of years before he created his Trial Lawyers College in Wyoming. We became friends, and he invited me to be one of the teachers for the first year he started the Trial Lawyers College. Unfortunately, I was involved in a 4-week trial in Oregon and couldn’t attend. However, I was asked by Gerry to teach at the program for the next 20 years. Each summer, I would travel to Dubois, WY, where Thunderbird…
Jury selection has always presented a problem to trial lawyers. Determining the right questions and how to frame them for the issues in the case is a difficult challenge. Under our modern procedure, It has become even more challenging due to the judicially imposed unreasonably short time limits and the frequent court-imposed process of remote jury selection where the lawyer and the jurors aren’t even in the same room. There is an enormous number of possible questions that might be…
The following is a talk given eighteen years ago in 1986 by Gerry Spence. It was given at the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and South Texas Law School of Law “Seminar of the Century.” I’m reprinting the original transcript without editing. While it is lengthy it contains vital truths about jury selection done right. From the start of the Trial College I had the privilege of teaching each year with Gerry and other great lawyers. This is an illustration of…