By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Looking at the question, “What does a federal judge expect from an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA)?” U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon of the District of Oregon, in a recent issue of the DOJ Journal of Federal Law and Practice (Simon, 2020), gives his answer in an acronym […]
Follow Judge Simon’s ‘Casa Le Pyro’ Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Earlier this week, I wrote about winning and losing with dignity. For this post, I want to take a closer look at the potential flip side of that. In the days since the close state elections reached an apparently clear result for Joe Biden as the new President-Elect, the Trump
Make Sure Your Filings Pass the “Straight Face Test” (2020 Election) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Yesterday was an historic day in the U.S. House of Representatives. For more than eight hours, Democratic and Republican members of the body gave short alternating speeches for and against the motion, before impeaching Donald Trump for abuse of office and obstruction of Congress. Watching the livestream on background as
Reduce Repetition: Four Ways to Break the ‘We’ve Heard This’ Reaction Read More »
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
Don’t Ask Your Audience to Follow Substructure: Five Reasons Flat Structure Is Better Read More »
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
Let the Judges Judge (and Not Settle Cases) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: What counts as good legal persuasion differs from one country to the next. Different cultures, different legal rules and systems, and different fact finders all make a difference. But one thing stays consistent no matter the venue or the tongue: Legal persuasion boils down to people using communication to influence
Trial Lawyers, Improve Your Emotional Intelligence (7 Reasons and 3 Ways) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda- Bahm: This blog is written in Arial font. While I can’t fully control the fonts it shows up in when it travels out in various forms of syndication, for the version that lives on my, I like Arial. It is a contemporary San Serif font that is pretty simple and clean, and in
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Wherever juries are used, we tend to expect quite a lot out of them. As Marie Comiskey, Senior Counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, has written, “While first-year law students are given a semester to learn the rudiments of criminal law, jurors are expected to become conversant with the essential
Consider Planting a Decision Tree in Your Next Trial Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Our trial system is set up so your adversary is on the other side and your judge is neutral. The courtroom layout illustrates that relationship, and trial procedure supports it. But at times, advocates can find themselves treating the judge as the adversary. Few examples rise to the level of presumptive
Argue With the Other Side, Not With the Judge Read More »
by Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We tend to believe that we navigate our way through the world based on our own conscious choices, and this perception of free will is an important part of our identity and our world view. Experienced litigators know that this perception of choice also plays an important role in how jurors and
Expect Jurors to Exaggerate the Role of Choice Read More »