Episodes
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In our second interview on The Effective Deposition, Program Director and author Carl Chamberlin returns to the podcast to talk about witness preparation. Joining him is NITA Trustee and Program Director Whitney Untiedt, and together they share tips and perspectives on witness prep sessions and how to ready your witness for the procedural and substantive aspects of being deposed. Carl and Whitney also talk about the ethics obligations of counsel and the ramifications of the recent ABA Formal Opinion 508.
7:20 Timing and length of prep sessions
12:52 Tips to optimize prep
21:09 Procedure and process of being deposed
23:07 One concept and three rules
28:37 How witnesses should answer
34:15 Answering after an objection
36:21 Handling opposing counselsâ tactics
45:42 Goal of substantive preparation
49:54 Reluctance to disclose
55:57 Ethics obligations
58:28 Demo|
1:02:20 Implications of ABA Formal Op. 508
1:08:03 Signoff questionsQuote
âWe as lawyer operate on âourâ time. Our time is valuable, and our time is calculated in six-minute increments, and our time is scheduled to within an inch of our lives, but when we sit down with our witness for a depo prep session, itâs no longer our time. Itâs our witnessâs time. This is their time to shine.â Whitney UntiedtResources
Carl Chamberlin (LinkedIn)
Whitney Untiedt (LinkedIn)
The Effective Deposition: Techniques and Strategies that Work (book)
Beginning the Effective Deposition, with Carl Chamberlin (podcast)
Whitney Untiedt Puts the âProâ in Pro Bono (podcast)
Deposition Skills: Florida (course)
ABA Formal Op. 508 (opinion) -
Content warning: Mentions of sexual assault. Brief, non-graphic discussions of questioning the venire about sexual assault occur at 32:20â32:59 and 42:25â44:34.
Experienced trial lawyers are accustomed to being the ones asking the questions, but in this episode, NITA NextGen faculty member Adam Kendall finds himself in the hot seat for once. Heâs answering our questions about voir dire: building rapport with the venire through icebreakers and humor, eliciting useful information from potential jurors while introducing bad facts about your case, and what you can glean from jury questionnaires. Adam also talks about the developing trend of limiting or eliminating peremptory strikes.
Topics3:39 Primary goal of voir dire
4:06 What to pay attention to
5:09 âThe quiet oneâ
9:03 Icebreakers to build rapport
11:18 Voir dire by the judge
14:22 Strong personalities among jurors
16;25 Ideal foreperson qualities
17:50 Eliciting strong opinions and reactions
19:19 Introducing bad facts
21:12 Using humor
24:12 Signaling legal issues
26:27 Nationwide changes in peremptory strikes
32:05 Jury questionnaires
35:53 Online research of the venire
41:50 War stories
46:50 Signoff questions
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âPeople who are too eager to be on a jury scare me.â Adam Kendall
Resources
Adam Kendall (LinkedIn)
Building Trial Skills: New Orleans (course)
Not Just for Trial! How to Use Exhibits from Day One (Register for Adam's live webcast on March 26, 2024) -
Missing episodes?
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Taking a deposition presents enough challenge as it is without the interference of obstreperous or obstructive counsel, yet it happens anyway and you must be prepared to deal with it. Following her appearance on a NITA panel webcast on depositions in November 2023, Assistant U.S. Attorney and Wilmington Law professor Veronica Finkelstein returns to NITAâs studio71 to answer viewersâ questions about how to manage misbehavior in the deposition room. She also reveals how to be a passionate advocate for your client without crossing those lines yourself, to reclaim your time when the opposition wastes it, and to wield the unexpected power of a deposition binder.
Topics4:16 Counsel who wonât control their client
8:36 Witnesses âforgettingâ their records
12:14 Counsel who try to confuse your witness
15:46 Disruptive, but not inappropriate, objections
19:21 Tracking time wasted on abusive conduct
23:26 Court reporter tracking wasted time
27:21 Being zealous but not obstreperous
29:37 Speaking objections
35:05 Continuing objections
39:51 Written discovery requests
43:36 âThe usual stipulationsâ
46:58 Contents of a deposition binder
57:07 Signoff questions
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âPeople get pretty quiet when you have the controlling case in your jurisdiction in your hand and they have nothing.â Veronica Finkelstein
Resources
Veronica Finkelstein (LinkedIn)
Reduce the Abuse: Managing Obstructive Opposing Counsel During Depositions (webcast)
Building Trial Skills: Colorado (course)
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Cognitive bias is a barrier that lawyers must overcome in courtâand itâs not just biases of the jurors they must consider, but those, too, of the judge, opposing counsel, expert witnesses, and even oneâs own self. New Orleans trial legend Dominic Gianna returns to May the Record Reflect to talk about how persuasion science can help you clear the tricky bias barrier. He presents the five most consequential cognitive biases to trial lawyers, the impact each has on fact finders, and suggests how you can connect with a diversity of jurors in the post-truth era.
Topics4:08 What is cognitive bias?
6:55 Five common cognitive biases
7:35 Confirmation bias
10:40 Anchoring bias
13:31 Hindsight bias
18:00 Availability bias
24:48 Domâs mantras for helping jurors process information
25:35 Affinity bias
28:52 Stupid lawyer tricks
32:18 Impact of our own biases
34:36 Biases from the bench
39:42 Appealing to a panel of judges
42:24 Expert witnesses bias impact on testimony, interpretation of evidence
44:09 Cognitive biases of opposing counsel
47:06 Persuasion in the post-truth era
57:51 Signoff questions
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âJurors donât vote for the evidence. They vote for their views, and so as advocates, we have the obligation to our clients to try to understand those views. Where did those views come from? Where are they based? What attitudes, beliefs, and values, led these people, this personâthis particular personâto a belief system that is so strong that he or she will ignore information that seemingly contradicts that confirmation bias?â Dominic Gianna
Resources
Dominic Gianna (LinkedIn)
Deposition Skills and Trial Skills: New Orleans (courses)
âGive âem the Olâ Razzle Dazzle (podcast episode)
âThe Secrets of Persuasive Legal Storytelling,â with David Mann (podcast episode)
âOff Broadway and Into Court,â with Kevin Newbury and Kate Douglas (podcast episode)
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Many a young idealist register for law school with visions of Atticus Finch dancing in their heads, but only the rarest few have those dreams come true. NITA Trustee Emeritus and national treasure James Brosnahan is among them. In Episode 49, this legendary legend reflects on a life in law that has included face-to-face encounters with such cognoscenti as Chief Justice Warren Burger, Senator Orrin Hatch, and the Kennedys. He also talks about his viral LinkedIn series on vocal quality and breaks down the six essential qualities of a commanding speaking voice that have served him well over his 60+ years in the courtroom.
4:28 Voice quality videos on LinkedIn
9:05 Evaluating your own voice quality
11:25 Tempo
17:22 Volume
20:53 Tone and mood
25:16 Warmup exercises
28:20 Emphasis and emotion
30:06 Speech harmonizing and collecting voices
35:15 Favorite voices
37:05 Clarity
42:59 Pauses
41:57 Arguing before SCOTUS
52:04 Interrogation by Orrin Hatch
56:21 Controversial representations
1:00:16 Defending the Constitution
1:03:35 Speaking truth to power
1:07:29 Boston Irish and the Kennedy agenda
1:14:39 What Jim has learned at NITA
1:19:03 Signoff questionsQuote
âThe goal, which is not easy, is to be like an actor who can throw the voice up into the second balcony. Thatâs what you want to do. The equivalent in trial is to be sure that every word that you pronounce is heard by Juror 1 in the back row and Juror 6 in the back row, because if they havenât heard what youâve said, itâs like it never happened.â Jim Brosnahan
Resources
Jim Brosnahan (bio)
Jimâs video series (LinkedIn)
Justice at Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases (book)
Publio Delgado, speech harmonizer (YouTube)
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Every trial advocate enters the courtroom hoping for a âone and doneâ decision that favors their client. But appeals do happen, and if youâre waiting until the verdict is read before you start thinking about what comes next, youâre already bringing up the rear. Judge Randall Warner of the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County joins the podcast to discuss the potential appeal issues you should be thinking about during litigation, the pretrial phase, and at trial; what issues are ripe for appeal (and which ones arenât) and their impact on your trial strategy; and how to preserve the record for appeal in real time. He also lets you in on what he says are the most undervalued, hence underutilized, tools in your advocacy kit and how you should be using them to your advantage.
Topics
3:35 Different considerations for different trials
5:10 Common mistakes
6:13 Basics of appeals
8:59 Reverse-engineering your case
10:24 Appellate specialist on the trial team
11:22 Good appeal issues
13:00 Bundling your issues
14:10 Poor appeal issues
15:06 Pretrial preservation considerations
16:11 Motions in limine}
17:52 Bench memoranda
19:57 Preservation at trial
22:20 Objections and evidence
26:16 Staying in the judgeâs good graces
27:17 Jury instructions
31:22 Verdict forms
38:49 Damages
40:38 Bench memorandum for jury instructions
42:12 Motion to acquit
45:26 Career advice to younger self
46:33 Signoff questionsQuote
âIâm a fan of bundling issues. So, for example, if youâve got one issue thatâs a sufficiency of evidence issue and another thatâs a jury instruction issue and a third issue thatâs an evidentiary objection or a couple evidentiary objections, and they all point to the same wrong result, those issues â independent of what the standard of review may be on any one of them â kind of work together to create an argument for prejudice for the case overall.â Judge Randall WarnerResources
Judge Randall Warner (bio)
âAll Mixed Up about Statutes: Distinguishing Interpretation from Applicationâ (article)
âAll Mixed Up about Mixed Questionsâ (article)
âEfficiency in Motionâ (article) -
At a time when more cases settle than go to trial, the deposition has become of utmost significance. Our guest Carl Chamberlin draws upon his experience taking and defending depositions in private practice as well as teaching deposition skills for 30 years. As the new author of The Effective Deposition, the topic is top of mind lately for Carl, so he joins us to talk about how to kick off a truly effective deposition with introductory matters and preliminary and substantive questioning techniquesâand he even asks a few questions of his own.
Topics3:22 The purpose of depositions
6:20 Difference between gathering information and obtaining information
10:38 Why depositions are important
12:30 Physical settings for remote depositions
14:15 The âusual stipulationsâ
17:20 Getting commitments
21:27 Commitments in remote depositions
24:42 Preliminary questions
29:51 Structure of substantive questioning
33:30 First demo
36:57 Key phrases for asking open-ended questions
38:25 And ones to avoid
43:01 Drilling down into a substantive topic
44:18 Second demo
1:04:19 Paying attention and listening
1:06:40 Using exhibits
1:10:15 Dealing with interruptions
1:13:56 Carlâs early depositions
1:16:53 The Effective Deposition
1:21:36 Signoff questions
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âWe want to make our questions clear and concise. Simple. The clearer the question, the better the answer. The fewer the objections, the more powerful it is.â Carl Chamberlin
Resources
Carl Chamberlin (LinkedIn)
NITA Publications (book)
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Content Warning: A brief, non-graphic mention of a sex crime case occurring from 29:34 to 30:49.
Everyone likes to start off on the right foot, and your opening statement is a crucial place to do it. Itâs also Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Lattaâs favorite part of trial, so she joined the podcast to discuss her best tips on telling the right story, using visual aids for maximum impact, and pulling out all the stops to captivate your jurors. She also talks about some of her own openings at trial and what she holds to be the G.O.A.T. of opening statements.
Timestamps & More
Topics
3:00 Whatâs fun about openings?
4:07 Rhetorical and legal goals
6:05 Crafting an opening
8:46 Workshopping it
10:54 Figuring out the right story to tell
13:00 Telling auditory stories for visual consumers
14:36 Some good donâts
15:30 Visual aids
17:10 Court clearance for visual aids
19:01 Objections
21:53 Case weaknesses
23:50 Closing your opening
24:42 Openings and closings, compare and contrast
26:42 Brookeâs favorite example of a great opening
32:35 Signoff questions
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âSomething I always do is I talk to jurors like they are a friend that Iâm having a martini with and Iâm sitting across the table from. And Iâm just talking to that friend about something thatâs a very serious, very important issue â and Iâm keeping it simple, Iâm keeping it concise â so itâs a serious tone, but itâs casual.â Brooke Latta
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Without a doubt, knowing your clientâs case up one side and down the other and understanding and applying the law are critical to your chances of prevailing at trial. But if your demeanor and presentation style lack polish, you might be getting in your own way. Special Counsel to the New York City MTA Inspector General and NITA Program Director Shareema Abel joins May the Record Reflect to talk about courtroom composure, interpersonal conduct, oral advocacy, self-expression, and so much more.
Topics3:05 What is courtroom demeanor?
6:12 Demeanor in challenging situations
8:57 When you know the judge or opposing counsel
12:03 Vocal expression and body language
16:49 Personal style
22:55 Conduct outside the courtroom
26:12 Online proceedings
28:39 Picking yourself up on an off day
32:44 Cross-generational learning at the office
37:45 Neurodivergence
40:16 Feedback on your courtroom demeanor
44:58 Signoff questions
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âSilence is one of the things that, over the years, I really had to get comfortable with in a courtroom because I remember wanting to fill every second of space and I thought silence was deadly. But as you grow in your career, you realize that you can use silence as a tool, and so oftentimes, especially when you forget a point, itâs ok to have a pregnant pause or use silence, and then return to a podium, to your notes, to remember what youâre saying. Or using silence to make a point after you ask a rhetorical question and using silence when youâre going from topic to topic, because my theory is you should never be talking and moving at the same time.â Shareema Abel
Resources Shareema Abel (LinkedIn) NITA Women in Trial (program) Deposition Skills: NYC (program) Building Trial Skills: NYC (program) NITA Women in Trial playlist (Spotify)
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NITA Education Director Rhani Lott Choi returns to May the Record Reflect, this time as guest host, to interview trial competition coaches Justin Bernstein and Spencer Pahlke. You may know Justin and Spencer from Unscripted Direct, the trial advocacy podcast for the law school community. Tune in to this blast from your mock trial past to hear about how advocacy skills transfer from law school to law practice to life; the forgotten lessons of mock trial that you should resurrect; and how learning, practicing, and teaching are part of a career-long cycle for the skilled advocate.
Timestamps & More
Topics
4:44 Unscripted Direct podcast
5:57 Trial advocacy community
9:58 Tough conversations about DEI
13:11 Building a legal podcast
14:48 Intersection of mock trial and trial practice
16:41 Three important lessons from mock trial
19:03 New practice pointers gleaned from podcasting
22:04 Life lessons from mock trial
26:01 Former students as colleagues
28:10 Things unlearned from mock trial
32:12 Why trial skills are important for all lawyers
33:30 Misconceptions about mock trialâs value
36:47 Keeping skills sharp
39:46 Skills transfer
42:58 Signoff question
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âThe biggest challenge the jurors have is they werenât there when these things happened, so helping them feel like they are there, theyâre watching things, even if itâs just through the narration of a lawyer, is incredibly powerful and it sort of sears into their memory.â Justin Bernstein
Resources
Justin Bernstein (bio)
Spencer Pahlke (bio)
Unscripted Direct (podcast)
Episode 5 (Adam Shlahet)
Episode 48 (Ben Rubinowitz)
Episode 51 (Rhani Lott Choi)
AvaTax -
You may see depositions as your golden opportunity to preserve testimony, elicit admissions, and test theoriesâbut for your witness, depositions are a veritable stewpot of jangled nerves and apprehension. In this episode, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten shares what you can do to ensure your witness walks into a deposition feeling at ease with the process and ready to handle even the toughest questions. Judge Whitten reflects on role-playing, using video as a prep tool, broaching difficult topics, responding to objections, and testifying live versus livestreamâand that's just for starters.
Topics2:35 Confident witnesses
3:53 Is witness prep privileged?
5:30 Procedural comfort
13:54 Objections during testimony
16:06 Substantive prep
22:57 Tough questions and role-playing
24:36 Using video in prep
26:38 Theory and theme testing
29:12 Common pitfalls
32:04 Testimony via Zoom versus face-to-face
38:15 Reluctant witnesses
42:36 Expert witness prep
46:03 Signoff question
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âWhen you have a problem with the witness, itâs because you didnât prepare enough.â Hon. Chris Whitten
Resources
Hon. Chris Whitten (bio)
Building Trial Skills: San Diego (course)
The Ins and Outs of Jury Selection (webcast)
En Banc: Judgesâ Perspectives on Remote Hearings (webcast)
âCan I Get a Witness?â (video)
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How many of us cue up the âsad tromboneâ every time we think of doing direct examination? Direct is renowned for being a boring slog through facts and faces as we make on our way to the fireworks of cross and closing. Yet, if youâre not using direct to tell a clear, persuasive story, youâre going to lose your case. According to Judge Amy Hanley and Dennericka Brooks, when you approach direct with the same zest as you do cross, youâll get the best out of your witnesses, avoid rambling or baffling testimony, and tell the tale jurors are keen to hear.
Topics3:42 Why donât people love doing direct?
6:44 Common mistakes
10:49 Telling the story
12:18 Organizing your direct
14:09 Headnotes
16:29 Exhibits, visuals, and demonstratives
22:36 Witness prep
27:55 Reluctant or difficult witnesses
35:00 Bad facts
40:57 Demeanor
46:00 Redirect
49:55 Signoff question
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âI will say, first and foremost, that you have to be prepared that no matter how well you prepare a witness, they will get on the stand and say something they werenât supposed to say, something that will throw you off. Itâs just going to happen.â Dennericka Brooks
Resources
Hon. Amy Hanley (bio)
Dennericka Brooks (bio)
NITA Women in Trial (course)
The Tense Trio (podcast)
Direct Examination: Being the Guide for Your Jury (webcast)
Harnessing Your Power on Cross-Examination (webcast)
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The profession of trial lawyering has a steep, intense learning curve requiring years of practice (and âpracticeâ) before you begin to feel like youâve got a grip on it. What if you could shave years off that timeline. NITAâs Education Director Rhani Lott Choi rejoins the podcast to talk about how trial lawyers can compress time through wormholes, slipstreams, and mentorship.
Topics
5:00 Time compression through wormholes
22:30 And slipstreams
29:34 And mentorship
34:22 A word about Parkinsonâs Law
42:28 Signoff Question
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âIâve worked at places where you have formal mentorship, which can be great, but often that does not continue past the employment relationship. And especially these days people change jobs all the time. The mentorship, for me, at NITA has been so valuable because it transcends that. Itâs not based on a job or a connection ... NITA just encompasses everything, through career changes, through types of practice . . . .â Rhani Lott ChoiResources
Rhani Lott Choi (bio)
Slipstream Time Hacking: How to Cheat Time, Live More and Enhance Happiness (book)
Tomato Clock (Chrome extension)
Direct Examinnation: Being the Guide for Your Jury (webcast) -
Being a trial lawyer is a challenging job even apart from the actual, technical work of lawyering in the courtroom. Legal advocacy often places emotional burdens upon trial attorneys that can be a lot to manage. Henry Su joins the podcast to dissect the various stressors associated with trial work and offers his insights into managing stress through mindfulness.
Topics3:27 Occupational hazards of being a trial lawyer
10:09 Toll of adversarial work
14:11 Basic obligations to the client
16:13 Managing when conflicted
19:33 Role of fear
26:07 Mindfulness training
30:45 Learning from critiques
32:49 Developing distress hardiness
37:15 âGoblin modeâ
39:27 Managing electronic intrusions
42:13 Resources on wellness
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âYou want to create distance. What you also want to do is to avoid is dissonance. Dissonance is when you allow the work that youâre doing to kind of infect you, such that you have internal conflict. Youâre torn up about it. Youâre torn up about why youâre doing this, and that this is not âyouâ and that these arenât the values that you hold dear. You want to avoid dissonance, you want to maintain distance.â Henry Su
Resources
Henry Su (bio)
Stress Hardiness and Lawyers (article)
Integrating Mindfulness Theory into Trial Advocacy (article)
Institute for Well-Being in Law (website)
The Anxious Lawyer (book)
Motion Skills: Online (April, August)
Deposition Skills: Online (November)
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Theatre wunderkinds and storytelling specialists Kevin Newbury and Kate Douglas join the podcast to tell stories about telling stories. Kevin and Kate discuss how universal themes, conflicts, and archetypes can be used as formulas for brainstorming; suggest some practices you should borrow from writing for the stage; and reveal which pandemic-era guilty pleasure can actually make you a more engaging storyteller.
Topics
4:27 Translating events into a story
6:11 Why good storytelling is essential to your trial
8:25 Unleashing your creative beast
10:49 Summing up with loglines and taglines
12:57 Classic conflicts for framing your clientâs case
14:36 Evoking an atmosphere to begin telling a story
16:50 Universal story themes
20:26 Nourishing your creativity
23:07 Importance of your elevator pitch
24:14 Dramaturgy in trial
27:59 How a trial is like a tv show
30:10 Defending the unsavory client
33:15 New Orleans Trial program
40:17 Signoff questionQuote
âWhen we come [to NITA programs], itâs always so much fun to sit around the table with these incredible lawyers and judges and hear all of their stories. I love to ask all of them, âWhatâs the wildest, strangest case that youâve had this year?â and [with] every single one of them itâs like, âWell, thatâs a good idea for a tv show,â âWell, that should be a movie,â and I find that a lot of lawyers and judges are good storytellers when theyâre recounting the adventures of something they just went through.â Kevin Newbury
Resources
Kevin Newbury (bio)
Kate Douglas (bio)
Deposition Skills & Trial Skills: New Orleans (NITA course)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (book)
The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (book)
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker (article)
The Secrets of Persuasive Legal Storytelling, with David Mann (podcast)
Give âem the Olâ Razzle Dazzle, with Dominic Gianna (podcast) -
If youâre looking for some resolutions for improving as a trial lawyer, let veteran prosecutor Steve Wood be your guide. In this episode (originally aired in 2021), Steve shares the top ten trial tips that always brought him luck. Any one of these would make for an ideal goal to shoot for in 2023. Steve also talks about public service and his lengthy career in law.
2:58 Tip #1
5:35 Why law?
7:33 Tip #2
10:46 Recollections of his first trial
13:23 Tip #3
18:23 Favorite part of trial
25:19 Tip #4
27:30 Nerves and anxiety about trial
28:49 Tip #5
33:04 Unwinding after trial
34:31 Tip #6
38:49 Most agonizing career decision
41:04 Public service careers
45:50 Tip #7
48:50 A high-profile case I wish Iâd tried
50:11 Tip #8
52:43 Tip #9
54:18 Retirement
54:48 Tip #10
56:41 Signature signoff questionQuote
âSomebody I taught with [at NITA] once said something I thought was brilliant, and itâs this: âTime is the measure of importance in the courtroom, whether you want it to be or not.â And what that means is, we indicate importance by how much time we spend on something.âRecommended Resources
Steven P. Wood (bio)
NITA On-Demand (free resource)
Americaâs Constitution: A Biography (book)
So Many Ways to Lose (book)
Geddy Leeâs Big Beautiful Book of Bass (book) -
Something that concerns trial lawyers more than ever is seating a juror with intractable explicit biases or who believes in conspiracy theories. King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Raam Wong experienced this situation when he prosecuted a high-profile, near-fatal shooting of an antifascist protester during a demonstration in Seattle in 2017. Raam joins the podcast to talk about voir dire and deselection tactics, experts and evidence, and checking your own biases at the courtroom door.
Topics
5:25 Political violence and Hokoana case
9:57 Factors that contributed to mistrial
14:38 Juror âtellsâ during voir dire
16:50 Conspiracy theories about a witness
20:17 Digging into social media
20:30 Questions for deselecting jurors
24:36 Willful disregard of evidence, civil versus criminal cases
27:30 Addressing juror attitudes
32:50 Remedying attention span issues
37:50 Believing in or rejecting expert opinion
40:50 Concerns about physical safety at trial
45:01 Signoff questionQuote
âAs trial lawyers, we really have to grapple with [. . .] stereotypes every day in courtâthe assumptions we have about people and the assumptions that the jury might hold. And at times it can be really effective, as advocates, if our good facts kind of match up, or reinforce, the juryâs preexisting beliefs. But at the same time, as a prosecutor, Iâm trying to do justice, and doing justice, in my mind, means ensuring that our courtrooms are open to everyone, and that means not making assumptions about people based on demographics or other characteristics.â Raam WongResources
Raam Wong (bio)
State v. Hodgman (case file)
Alt-Right Event in Seattle Devolves into Chaos and Violence, Outside, Truth-Twisting Inside (SPLC Hatewatch)
Righteous or reckless? Trial under way for couple accused in UW shooting during Milo Yiannopoulos speech (Seattle Times) -
This monthâs episode features advice and observations from some of NITAâs top judges, who serve as faculty, presenters, and board members. They share their reflections on what theyâve seen from their unique vantage point on the bench and dispense helpful tips for the next time youâre in court.
Topics
2:13 What counsel should know before setting foot in my courtroom
10:30 Most common mistake I see lawyers make in my courtroom
17:55 Impressive or memorable things a lawyer has done during trial
22:50 Nuttiest things Iâve seen during jury selectionResources
50 Tips for 50 Years, Part 1 and 50 Tips for 50 Years, Part 2
Judge Mark Drummond (podcast) (webcast) (webcast)
Justice Lee Edmon (bio)
Judge Marian Gaston (bio) (webcast)
Judge Nancy Gertner (bio) (podcast) (webcast)
Judge Amy Hanley (bio) (podcast) (podcast) (webcast) (webcast) (webcast)
Judge Ruth Rocker McMillan (bio) (podcast)
Judge Sam Sheldon (bio) (webcast)
Judge Mindy Solomon (bio) (webcast)
Judge Christopher Whitten (bio) (webcast) (webcast) -
Imposter syndrome is a common phenomenon among lawyers, often starting in law school, where self-doubt about your spot among so many wunderkinds can shake your sense of achievement and belonging. Gwinnett County Magistrate Court Judge Ruth Rocker McMullin joins the podcast to discuss what imposter syndrome looks like when it shows up in lawyersâ lives, how she got out of her own way as her legal career pivoted into new directions, what happens at the intersection of imposter syndrome and implicit bias, and how cultivating emotional intelligence just might save you from yourself.
Topics
3:50 Imposter syndrome
5:52 Places, spaces of imposter syndrome in law
8:56 Are lawyers more susceptible?
10:37 What imposter syndrome looks like
15:39 Implicit bias and imposter syndrome
20:32 âGlue workâ
26:20 Managing implicit bias upwards, sideways
27:16 Calling out implicit bias, letting it slide
29:18 Upside of imposter syndrome
31:21 Managing your own brain
33:00 Exploring emotional intelligence
34:38 Developing emotional intelligence
38:58 Signoff questionQuote
âI had to have that conversation with myself when I switched my career from being a public defender to going into private practice, to taking a part-time judicial position. You know: âI donât know if Iâm qualified to do this.â I had to tell myself, âYou handled death penalty cases. Of course you can do this.ââ Judge Ruth Rocker McMillanResources
Judge Ruth Rocker McMillan (bio)
The Imposter Phenomenon (article)
Being Glue (article) -
The spontaneity of cross-examination and impeachment often intimidates lawyers early in their trial career. NITA Education Director Rhani Lott Choi and Denver trial lawyer Kate Sandlin have been there, done that â and in this episode, they disclose their favorite tips that honed their skills and settled their nerves. Rhani and Kate talk about how to feel at ease in the moment, advance-prep for the âspontaneityâ of cross and impeachment, bring wily witnesses to heel, use demonstratives to pin down an answer, and help your witness be ready to take the stand.
Topics
3:05 Cross-examination: what is it good for?
5:55 How to plan for cross
8:23 Thoughts on your judge
12:28 Learning about your judge
14:47 Single-fact, leading questions
21:09 Demonstration of crossing a bad witness
27:16 Crossing an alleged crime victim
32:03 Using demonstrative exhibits
34:22 Witness preparation
39:14 Impeachment: what is it good for?
41:50 Dangers of impeachment
45:34 Demonstration of impeachment
51:16 One best cross tip
53:50 Signoff questionQuote
âEvery mistake Iâve made on cross-examination, if I ever go back and look at it, the problems start with my question, and I probably wouldnât have made that mistake if Iâd asked a better question.â Rhani Lott Choi
Resources
Rhani Lott Choi (bio)
Kate Sandlin (bio)
Building Trial Skills: San Diego (course)
Show AND Tell: Using Exhibits Effectively in In-Person and Remote Advocacy (free webcast) - Show more
