By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm Imagine a typical employment discrimination case, subject to all of the ambiguities of human motivation. To the plaintiff, it is a story of good if not exceptional work performance cut short by a decision to terminate based on race, gender, age or disability. To the defendant, it is a story
Realistically Compare Your Employment Fact Finders Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The reason probably, at least partially, has something to do with justice. The cases that should remind us the most of that can sometimes feel like lost causes, like the tragedy of Adnan Latif. This young man traveled in 2001 from his native Yemen to Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border,
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: News: Americans still don’t love lawsuits. According to polling conducted in August by Luce Research for the American Tort Reform Association and the group, Sick of Lawsuits, “Americans firmly believe that lawsuit abuse is a problem in our country. They see too many lawsuits and believe that the number of
Take Anti-Lawsuit Attitudes With a Grain of Salt Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: P: Hey, have you seen the amicus brief that was written entirely as a cartoon? S: A cartoon? You mean someone submitted a joke as an amicus brief? P: No, not a joke. The lawyer, Bob Kohn, lays out his argument in a series of frames with characters and dialogue,
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm In the week since actor and director Clint Eastwood made a surprise appearance at the Republican National Convention, his speech has become infamous. The chosen rhetorical device of engaging in a dialogue with an imaginary Barack Obama, represented by an empty chair, has spawned countless internet memes and has even
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Even good science can sometimes be a tough sell in the court of public opinion. Take, for example, the moment in Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech last week where he mocked the President’s concern over rising sea levels. The crowd of delegates in Tampa cheered wildly, though the
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Big win for Apple. In a dramatic conclusion to the company’s lawsuit against rival pad and smartphone maker Samsung, the Cupertino powerhouse convinced a federal jury that a majority of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets infringe on valid Apple patents, in many cases willfully, and received an unprecedented $1.05 billion award.
Take a Schematic Approach to Jury Instructions Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm Imagine two scenarios involving figure skaters just before a competition. In the first scenario, one skater, perhaps a sneakier version of Tanya Harding, loosens some of the screws on the bottom of another contestant’s skate causing her opponent to fall and delivering the victory to the saboteur. In the second
Clothe Responsibility in Action, Not Inaction Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you recognize the word “truthiness” then chances are, you are a fan of Comedy Central’s mock news commentator Steven Colbert. If not, the neologism is something Colbert coined in his first show in 2005, and “truthiness is what you want the facts to be, as opposed to what
Keep an Eye on Your “Truthiness” Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Matthew Salzwedel in Lawyerist recently wrote about ethos, pathos, and logos in legal writing. In case you’re trying to remember that early college course in philosophy or public speaking, let me remind you of Aristotle’s famous trilogy: Ethos relates to your credibility, pathos lies in your ability to appeal to emotions,
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: Use All Three in Your Legal Writing and Oral Argument Read More »