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Thank You To Our Holiday Party Sponsors Honorable Johnny N. Panos Brodhead Law, LLC Esquire Solutions • An Alexander Gallo Company Gary S. Freed Fried & Bonder Bruce A. Hagen • Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Dixon James
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Raising the Bar: Courting Public Opinion

by W. Blair Meeks
Communication Strategist
Jackson Spalding

If you’re a student of crisis communications, there has been no shortage of monumental, real life case studies recently. Herman Cain troubles have drifted into Jerry Sandusky shock waves and the 24-hour news cycle keeps churning up headlines. A sidebar discussion worth having, however, relates to the legal ramifications and legal wisdom of all this public disclosure. When you represent a client whose reputation could soon be taking a severe public beating, what is the tipping point that triggers your entry into the court of public opinion? Helping to define that tipping point is how we will be Raising the Bar this month.

Herman Cain, of course, is running for President. There was no decision about whether he should speak publicly once charges of sexual harassment surfaced. He’s a public figure running for the highest office in the land. He had to say something. How he handled what he said is open for debate, but there is no disputing that he had to react publicly. Since legal wrangling related to the events in question are long past, there was no immediate legal weight tipping the scales of his response decision.

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Practice Corner: Taking a Look in the Mirror: An End-of-Year Wrap-Up for the Solo or Small Practice

by Daniel DeWoskin, trial attorney
Jill Sheridan, paralegal
www.atlantatrial.com

A goal without a plan is just a wish. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)

As practicing attorneys with unfathomably busy schedules, we have many such goals that are mere wishes, just aspirations that we have the very best intentions of praying will someday come true. As the year winds down and many of us enjoy the few days when our clients, opposing counsel, and the court staff all for once are not keeping our phone lines jammed, some of us choose to take a very deliberate and analytical approach to what we do operationally in our office. We assess what has worked well for us and may continue to do so, as well as what has not worked so well. We will determine whether or not some of our approaches can be retooled or whether they should simply be scrapped once and for all.

Let’s be honest, we became lawyers so we didn’t have to do business, right? The end-of-year wrap-up certainly seems a lot like business. If you’re a solo practitioner, partner, or part of a small firm, it may be time to face the reality that you are running a business. The business is only as successful as the people who work within it. Planning and evaluating what operational aspects of your office are efficient and effective can be tedious, but so can engaging in practices that worked well a decade (or even three to five years) ago but have since become redundant or otherwise unnecessary.

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Litigator’s Playbook: Demonstrative Evidence – Bridging the Gap between Boredom and Engagement

by Jeri Kagel, M.Ed., J.D.
Trial Synergy, LLC
www.trialsynergy.com

Using demonstrative evidence has always been an important way for trial lawyers to highlight their point(s) or help contradict the opposing side’s story. Whether the demonstrative aid consists of words or pictures or is the actual object that you want to bring into evidence, now, more than ever, the use of demonstrative evidence must take into consideration the ways technology has influenced our lives.

Although “patience” may still be a virtue, people are becoming more easily frustrated when something does not happen quickly and are less likely to “stick with it” when they do not understand something quickly. “Fast food restaurants” and “drive thru’s” are considered slow if there is a line inside or out and Internet servers are slow if it takes more than a few seconds to load a page. TV remotes or DVRs are becoming necessities so we can change channels when we do not want to watch commercials or to help us move between different shows when we want to watch more than one. DVRs allow us to watch what we want to watch regardless of when the program was scheduled to be seen.

And yet – walking into a courtroom is like walking backwards in time. Our trials continue to rely primarily on the spoken word. As our jurors get younger, this phenomenon – the difference between our need for speed and immediacy to stay engaged versus the more methodical, sometimes plodding, nature of trials – makes keeping jurors engaged and willing to learn a more difficult task.

Using demonstrative aids can bridge the gap! But only if used well and only if you understand how people learn.

1. Only use what you know:
Having the best, most advanced equipment will not serve you well if you do not know how to use it and use it quickly. Trying to get your program on the screen while fumbling around or being unable to get the image loaded swiftly is, today, similar to the disheveled attorney unable to find anything in his files. The more often you fumble, the more you lose their interest and their good will. Practice ahead of time!

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