By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: On the path from the initial dispute to the ultimate disposition of a case, there are many forks in the road. In choosing whether to take the path of settlement or to continue on to trial, one of the most trusted advisors is, and should be, the trial lawyer. After […]
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In my line of work, I find myself on my feet giving presentations quite often: marketing talks, CLE seminars, strategy sessions. I prepare for those opportunities pretty extensively, but here is one thing I don’t do as part of that preparation: I don’t sit and review my notes. I do prepare notes,
When Preparing to Present, Talk, Don’t Read Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Nodding your head up and down means “Yes.” At least in our culture it does. And world travelers will know that this one thankfully translates to nearly all other countries and cultures as well. There are exceptions, like one country I visited a couple of times on consulting trips: Bulgaria.
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When an audience decides whether someone is credible or not, what do they look for? To a large degree, they look for confidence. In some ways, confidence can be viewed as performed credibility. Someone who is telling the truth is confident. Someone who is winning is confident. Of course, we know that
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Persuasion is often a matter of overcoming barriers and, in the courtroom, those barriers can be very real. The wall of the jury box is a physical analogy for the differences in class, age, race, education, and many other factors that can separate the fact finders from the attorneys, the
Use “You” (Not “I” or “One” or “They”) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When you think of science, do you think of dry research articles, charts and graphs that take a good deal of explanation in order to get to a point? Or do you think of Neil DeGrasse Tyson explaining the Cosmos with the help of clear but sophisticated video and graphics?
Experts, Tell a Visual Story Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The cooler sat in the courtroom throughout the trial. A 40.5 gallon Igloo fishing cooler, it was a key piece of evidence in the murder trial of an attorney, Tom Capano, charged with killing his lover who was the Delaware Governor’s scheduling secretary. A recent story in Delaware Online focuses on one of
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Written in the context of the civil rights and Vietnam war protests of the Sixties, there is an old Buffalo Springfield song with a line about the marchers, “Singing songs and carrying signs [that] mostly say, ‘hooray for our side.’” That ‘hooray’ is what the political psychologists call “partisan affect,”
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is the season for strong denials from powerful men in entertainment and politics. To pick just one from the crop of current examples, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama, former judge Roy Moore, has recently been accused of a number of inappropriate relationships when he was in his early
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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: A fair proportion of the legal advocacy in America today is taking place via written communication. With only a small percentage of cases actually ever seeing a jury — three percent, or less — cases are more and more often reaching their ends based on written motions. Summary judgment decisions
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