ken.brodabahm – Page 40 – Your Trial Message

Don’t Ask Your Audience to Follow Substructure: Five Reasons Flat Structure Is Better

Adapting to Judges, Adapting to Jurors, Opening Statement / ken.brodabahm / December 9, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is one habit of attorneys that promotes precision in analytical thinking, but often interferes with the ability to clearly communicate with the audience. That habit is the tendency to divide points into sub-points, and to further divide those sub-points into sub-sub-points, and so on. For example, in the world […]

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Account for the ‘Ethics Tax’ on Female Leaders

Bias / ken.brodabahm / December 5, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The arc of history has been moving, albeit in fits and starts, toward gender equality. In the business world, and a little less in the legal world, we see more female leaders at the top. But once a woman reaches that point, is she held to the same standards? Would

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Adapt to Evolving Attention

Adapting to Jurors / ken.brodabahm / December 2, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You’ve probably seen the claim, but is it really true that our attention spans are becoming shorter than that of a goldfish? Last year, the presentation software company called Prezi released its 2018 State of Attention Report, focusing on the question of what is going on with the attention span of

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Thank Your Jurors…Just Don’t Go Overboard

Adapting to Jurors / ken.brodabahm / November 28, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I remember once sitting in court early into the defense opening statement, and the attorney was busy thanking the jurors, again. Even though they had already heard the spiel from the other side, and from this attorney’s colleague during voir dire, they were receiving another explanation of just how much

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Let the Judges Judge (and Not Settle Cases)

Adapting to Judges / ken.brodabahm / November 25, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: You’re heading to trial and there is one last hurdle: the mandatory settlement conference that your judge is gunning for. He has signaled at every opportunity that he thinks this is a case the parties should resolve prior to trial, and that nothing would please him more than to have

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Be “Tough and Firm” Rather than “Warm and Friendly” in Negotiations

Settlement / ken.brodabahm / November 18, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There’s an old expression: “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Assuming that your goal is not to actually catch flies, but instead, to get what you want in some kind of negotiation, the expression means that a warm and friendly approach will be best. And I

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Witnesses, Return to Your ‘Home Base’ Where Possible

Testifying Effectively, Witness Preparation / ken.brodabahm / November 14, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A couple of witnesses had about the most high-profile testimony turn imaginable the other day. As the public phase of the House impeachment hearings got underway on Wednesday, the first up to bat were George Kent, top State Department official for Eastern Europe, and the acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine,

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Trial Lawyers, Watch how Americans Watch the Impeachment Process

Adapting to Jurors, Bias, Public Perception / ken.brodabahm / November 11, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It looks like we are heading into another one of those times, like the OJ or Casey Anthony trials, when all of the nation’s attention will be fixated on an interesting and high-stakes legal process. As the impeachment inquiry moves into the public realm this week, it is sure to

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Whistleblowers, Remember Credibility is Still Part of the Story

Uncategorized / ken.brodabahm / November 7, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: What started with an anonymous whistleblower report regarding President Trump’s pressure on the government of Ukraine to investigate his political opponents has blossomed into a parade of witnesses testifying in a soon-to-be public House impeachment inquiry. So, who was this whistleblower? A lot of people really want to know. Kentucky

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Think About Your Case Like an Investor

Uncategorized / ken.brodabahm / November 4, 2019

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I spoke with some defense attorneys recently who were surprised to learn of existence of third- party litigation funding groups. These financial companies who will front cash for litigation and trial expenses in hopes of recovering if the case succeeds, have been around for awhile. But the field is still

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Your Trial Message

(formerly the Persuasive Litigator blog)

Author name: ken.brodabahm