In this episode of Trial Lawyer Nation, Michael Cowen and Sonia Rodriguez discuss innovative techniques for gathering information during the discovery process. They emphasize the importance of thinking outside the box and utilizing both traditional and non-traditional sources to build a strong case. The conversation covers various methods for researching defendants, the use of public records and FOIA requests, creative approaches to witness depositions, and the value of networking with other lawyers. They also highlight the significance of subpoenas and the insights that can be gained from former employers.
Featured Guest
Name: Sonia Rodriguez
About: Sonia has represented only plaintiffs for nearly 20 years. She practices in the areas of personal injury trial and appellate law.
Company: Cowen | Rodriguez | Peacock
Connect: LinkedIn
-
174 – Amy Hall – Elevating Your Case with Visual Trial Strategy
Host Michael Cowen welcomes back visual trial strategist Amy Hall for a discussion about her work helping lawyers connect with juries through visual displays. As she explains, people remember more of what they see than what they just hear – which makes visuals an important tactic in the courtroom. Her strategy focuses on guiding her clients to distill a case so that they display only important points on visual elements like timelines.
Michael and Malorie welcome listener questions for a new “Ask Michael and Malorie Anything” feature. To submit a question, email Michael.
Featured Guest
Name: Amy Hall
About: Amy is a visual trial strategist with over 18 years of experience helping trial lawyers create compelling visual presentations. Her background in graphic design and experience across various industries, including the gambling industry, gave her unique insights into decision-making, emotions, and attention that she now applies to litigation strategy.
Company: Visual Trial Strategy | Trial Strategy Academy
Connect: LinkedIn
Episode Highlights
[04:18] Visual Trial Strategy Defined: Understanding that people are visual creatures, this strategy distills a case in a way that helps jurors connect with it.
[08:33] Pictorial Superiority Concept: It means, simply, that people remember what they see a lot more than they remember what they hear.
[14:14] Distill! One of the first things Amy asks her lawyer clients to do is prepare a two-page neutral statement on the case. When they complain that the case is too complex to be distilled into two pages, she says: “Keep trying.”
[19:08] Common Visuals: The formula is the “shot across the bow” and should be the first exhibit shown, Amy says. She also describes this suite of three exhibits: the anchor, link, and payoff.
[23:59] Battle of the Experts: Expert testimony should always be accompanied with visuals, Amy says, and she never lets an expert bring their own exhibit.
[28:12] Open-Ended Questions: Lawyers often fear asking jurors open-ended questions. Amy is “obsessed” with them because, she says, jurors will love a lawyer who gives them the freedom to come to their own conclusions.
[34:48] Timelines: They’re important because they represent the plaintiff’s history and the defendant’s decisions. But Amy cautions that timelines must simplify the information so the jury is not confused.
[37:39] At the Beginning: That’s when the plaintiff’s lawyer should start developing their visual strategy. “If you start that process, you are going to eliminate a lot of blind alleys,” Amy says.
[42:16] Five Hours a Day: Amy prefers to work with her clients in blocks – five hours a day for four consecutive days – because distilling a case takes sustained time and energy.
[46:58] AI: Amy welcomes exciting, powerful new technology, but she notes that visual trial strategy is tied to a technology that’s been locked in place for some 25,000 years: the human brain.
Connect with Trial Lawyer Nation
☑️ Follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
☑️ Subscribe to Trial Lawyer Nation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
In this popular and award-winning podcast for trial lawyers, noteworthy author, sought-after speaker, and renowned trial lawyer, Michael Cowen explores critical topics distinctive to the legal profession with some of the biggest names in the industry – specifically focused on developing extremely efficient law practices, securing a competitive edge in the industry, and wildly excelling in the courtroom.
Produced and Sponsored by LawPods.
-
168 – Mike Alder – Why Lawyers Need Discipline, Consistency, and a Spiked Meditation Mat
Three decades as a trial lawyer; 30 trials; more than $3 billion in verdicts and settlements; thriving practices: Ask Mike Alder how he does it, and his answer is simple.
“Take a cold shower and make your bed.”
Make your bed, every day, because it teaches the discipline a trial lawyer needs. Prefer a warm shower? Take a cold one anyway, because stepping outside your comfort zone prepares a trial lawyer for dealing with stressful situations.
In this wide-ranging conversation with host Michael Cowen, Mike reflects on the personal habits (meditating on a spiked mat) and professional strategies (doing small disciplines over time) that have contributed to his success. Tune in to learn his equation for excellence, recipe for losing your life, and daily routines. They’ve taken years to develop, “but now, I’m cooking with gas, and that is what it takes.”
Featured Guest
Name: Mike Alder
About: Mike is owner and senior trial attorney at AlderLaw, a leading Los Angeles firm that represents plaintiffs in personal injury, business torts, and employment litigation cases. He pursues all cases on behalf of his clients who have suffered injustices.
Connect: LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Email
Episode Highlights
[01:33] “It’s a Good Living”: Over a three-decade career, Mike has 30 trials to his credit, with more than $3 billion in verdicts and settlements.
[03:34] Paying It Forward: Mike runs a program in which he pays half of a new lawyer’s trial costs and preparation costs if they agree not to settle for cheap, but rather try the case.
[07:33] Letting Go: Establishing his own firm, Mike discovered that he couldn’t handle both operations and big trials, so he learned to accept what he’s good at and hire the right people for other roles.
[11:10] Equation for Excellence: “Excellence equals consistent, mostly ordinary behavior done over time to create good habits that you combine with other good habits that make you excellent,” Mike says.
[17:03] A Good Pain: Mike swears by his spiked meditation mat because it “focuses the hell out of you.”
[20:14] Dirty Words: Don’t say “work-life balance” in front of Mike or his wife. They believe the expression implies that “if I take this, then I take away from the other.” In fact, they say, you can “have it all” as long as you make priority decisions at certain times.
[26:54] The Common Denominator: Mike recently added a workers’ compensation practice that often crosses into employment law. Ultimately, “it’s all based around helping people.”
[29:18] “Per-chlor What?” When he took on a groundwater contamination case, Mike couldn’t pronounce the name of the chemical. But over time, he learned it, and he and the jury were speaking the same language.
Connect with Trial Lawyer Nation
☑️ Follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.
☑️ Subscribe to Trial Lawyer Nation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
In this popular and award-winning podcast for trial lawyers, noteworthy author, sought-after speaker, and renowned trial lawyer, Michael Cowen explores critical topics distinctive to the legal profession with some of the biggest names in the industry – specifically focused on developing extremely efficient law practices, securing a competitive edge in the industry, and wildly excelling in the courtroom.
Produced and Sponsored by LawPods.
-
144 – Eric Oliver – Beyond the Facts: Trial Consultant Eric Oliver on How to Tell Your Client’s Story
Jury trials can be notoriously unpredictable, even when the facts are in your favor. To be successful at trial, attorneys need to do more than just rehearse their opening and closing statements. They also need to know how to influence the jury.
On this episode of Trial Lawyer Nation, Michael Cowen is joined by nationally recognized trial consultant and the author of several trial guides, Eric Oliver. Applying over 40 years of experience and his background in marketing and persuasion, Eric shares strategies and techniques that trial lawyers can use, such as storytelling, reverse sequencing, and the use of nonverbal communication, to engage and persuade the jury. Eric and Michael also discuss things such as confirmation bias and what lawyers need to be aware of so as not to alienate the jury.
Tune in to gain valuable insight and tips on how to present your case more like a story to persuade the jury.
Don’t miss out! Michael’s book, Big Rig Justice: A Comprehensive Guide to Maximizing Value in Truck Accident Cases is now available!
Featured Guest
Name: Eric Oliver
About: Eric Oliver is a seasoned trial consultant with over 40 years of experience in the field. A nationally recognized trial consultant, Eric specializes in leveraging persuasion and perception of facts to influence legal decision-making. His expertise lies in working with trial attorneys and assisting them in presenting well-developed case stories that effectively sway decision-makers, both inside and outside the jury box. His books are available at Trial Guides.
Company: Metasystems Consulting LTD.
Connect: LinkedIn
Episode Highlights
[01:54] Eric Oliver’s background: Eric talks about his marketing and persuasion background and how he got started as a trial consultant.
[04:17] Books by Eric Oliver: Eric mentions how some of the books he has written and co-written have come about, including Facts Can’t Speak for Themselves and a revision called, Facts Still Can’t Speak for Themselves.
[08:26] Get over the hump of suspicion and engage the jury: Research shows that people are genetically wired to create narratives. Trial lawyers can favorably present their client’s case to the jury by using this information to tell an intentional and cohesive story.
[11:25] How to do focus groups: The trick is to never ask the jury to take a position on the case, because it can work to your disadvantage.
[13:54] Story components that are persuasive to a jury: Present your case more as a story and less as a case by incorporating elements of a narrative, such as point of view.
[15:20] Confirmation bias: Eric explains the meaning of confirmation bias and how it influences the jury’s thought process and decision-making.
[18:11] The importance of motive and how to show it, rather than tell it: Eric and Michael discuss why motive is important, even in a negligence case, and how to show motive without telling the jury what they should think.
[26:46] Rehearse your case and your experts: One challenge at trial is that when witnesses get on the stand, the whole story can fall apart. Eric explains a trick that you can use to train your experts to adopt your language, your imagery, your metaphors, and your analogies.
[33:33] Sequencing doesn’t always mean starting at the beginning: Starting with the defendant’s story and working up to the bad act is not always the best approach. Sometimes a reverse timeline, where you start with the worst and back up to the beginning bad act, is more effective.
[36:29] The good and not-so-good things about nonverbal communication: Eric discusses the pros and cons of nonverbal communication, and provides examples. He also talks about how to create rapport with the jury, including how to use mirroring.
Connect with Trial Lawyer Nation
☑️ Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.
☑️ Subscribe to Trial Lawyer Nation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and YouTube.
In this popular and award-winning podcast for trial lawyers, noteworthy author, sought-after speaker, and renowned trial lawyer, Michael Cowen explores critical topics distinctive to the legal profession with some of the biggest names in the industry – specifically focused on developing extremely efficient law practices, securing a competitive edge in the industry, and wildly excelling in the courtroom.
Produced and Sponsored by LawPods.
