Stay ConnectedThe Trial Lawyers College Podcast talks to leading attorneys, TLC board members, and faculty about the ideas and the issues that are affecting trial lawyers today.
The TLC podcast covers courtroom strategy, communicating with jurors, connecting with clients, methods that drive success, balancing healthy relationships with a busy practice and more.
Listen to course co-director Stephen Demik describe the outstanding trial skills course which is coming up soon. Each director gives detailed examples of the benefits of attending this trial skills course that you won't want to miss. Tune in and experience an uplifting program with real-life examples for us to all learn from them.
Listen to course director Jim Leach describe the outstanding trial skills course which is coming up soon. Each director gives detailed examples of the benefits of attending TLC's Trial Skills Foundation seminar that you won't want to miss. Tune in and experience an uplifting program with real-life examples for us all to learn from.
In today's episode, Rafe takes the opportunity to interview Tim Baker as he anticipates being a juror. Rafe walks Tim through the basics of being a juror, what to expect, and how to prepare.
As a leading Spokane, Washington Attorney, Karen Lindholdt has been a successful advocate for the injured and wrongfully accused for the past 27 years. TLC graduate Karen Lindholdt discusses the experience of being a woman representing men accused of sexual assault. Karen discusses the TLC methods that helped her and the difficulties that come with her client's sexual assault charges.
Rafe Foreman interviews Cate Beekman of Beekman Cortes, LLP, based in Napa Valley, California. Cate has a stellar reputation and is known for being an exceptional Trial Attorney. Cate represents people facing challenging criminal charges. Join them as they dive deep into why Cate chose a TLC to strengthen her trial skills.
Join our special holiday interview with Valerie Malone as she discusses the season of giving. Valerie and Rafe exchange stories of good tidings and cheer.
TLC President John Sloan joins the podcast to examine the importance of taking time away from work to strengthen your skills of being a trial lawyer. John and Rafe discuss how participating in various TLC programs can grow and stretch you as a trial lawyer.
"It's integrity. If you don't have integrity in your thoughts, it's going to show. You're going to come across as fake, and nobody wants to be associated with that."
Victoria Rusk, a mitigation specialist and investigator from Houston, TX, credits the Trial Lawyers College's In Defense of the Damned program with giving her the tools that enhance her civil case preparation and her strategy for consulting criminal defense attorneys. She helps clients understand what mitigation is and how the discovery and presentation of their background is critical to saving their life.
The TLC method teaches that if the jury perceives that an attorney is disconnected from or embarrassed about their client, the jury could adopt that bias and judge the client harshly. Drawing from this, Rusk feels that assessing the case and witnesses help a lawyer better understand their clients' background.
When attorneys genuinely empathize with their clients, they can present their client's mitigation story in a compelling way that helps jurors to overcome the feelings of anger stirred up by the prosecutor. Trial Lawyers College teaches lawyers to identify universal themes to be those many people can relate to, such as parenthood or significant loss.
"As a mitigation specialist, we meet people where they are."
"It is the idea of just being yourself and connecting and being genuine and not just pretending to be genuine but being actually genuine...see how that actually works."
This fall, former prosecutor Adam Murray enjoyed training at the Trial Lawyers College intensive five-day course in Shambhala, Colorado. Although he is not yet a TLC graduate, he describes his time at the TLC as a "life-changing experience." After leaving the seminar, he determined that the tools provided an entirely different perspective that would benefit all aspects of trial preparation, beginning with Voir Dire.
"How can I be empowered to make sure that my client can get their story before the jury so that the right result happens?"
Being able to authentically connect with the jurors from the beginning of the process helps attorneys avoid seeming adversarial. It allows lawyers to work collaboratively with the jury and to practice the law while retaining their humanity.
Murray has since added a psychodrama room onto his office space for helping clients prepare for trial, so they would be better able to live out the critical moment on the stand. As they express their feelings regarding the experience, jurors can identify with the victim and their loss.
"Lawyers get bogged down in minutiae and facts. The facts are important. The facts are the latticework upon which you hang the flesh of your case, and the flesh of your case is going to be the principles, the values, the emotion, the feelings, the betrayal; those types of things are what make a case relatable to a jury."
This week, Kenny Adair, former district judge and 2007 graduate of the Trial Lawyer College (TLC), attributes his success to TLC. When he left the program, he felt better equipped to discover and understand his clients' stories and tell them in a way that the jury would embrace. Through the use of reenactments, among other methods, he can discover the backstory and connect personally and emotionally to each case.
Adair tells the essential story during voir dire, during the opening statement, when questioning the clients and witnesses, and during the closing argument. He identifies the hero or would-be hero and the villain, the liable party. He shows the villain's betrayal and is ready to capitalize on the defense counsel's trial behavior that compounds the original harm to the client.
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