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By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The time has finally come for the first votes to be cast in the presidential primaries: the Iowa caucus. That contest has historically proven to be somewhat unpredictable, even to pollsters, and with tight races on both sides, that trend is likely to continue. At this stage, public opinion trackers […]

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you’ve seen the old film Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, then you remember one of my favorite scenes where the teacher, played by Ben Stein, attempts to cover U.S. economic history to a group of students who could not be more bored or disengaged. And they can hardly be blamed since

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: One common piece of advice given to fact witnesses during deposition preparation meetings is that it isn’t their role to instruct opposing counsel on everything they ought to know: “Witness, Don’t Teach.” I’ve resisted the temptation to set that advice to the music of Madonna’s “Papa, Don’t Preach” song, but

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad,” President Obama said, while talking about the first grade victims in the Newtown massacre of 2012. Only his face read “sad” rather than “mad,” as he gave a statement earlier this week on his new executive actions to reduce gun violence.

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It is every parent’s lament: Time is going by so quickly…It seems like only yesterday…They grow up so fast. Of course, much of this is what I’d call a “retrospective illusion.” It is only when we are looking back on the past that the days, months, or years seem to

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Our stories like the number three: There are three little pigs and three bears, as well as Harry, Ron and Hermione. Our movies like threes, as Star Wars now embarks on the last of its three trilogies. Our advertisements like the number three as well: the iPad 2 is “thinner, lighter, faster.”

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Consider this scenario: two swimmers are drowning, and the even greater problem is that they are so far apart that the single lifeguard cannot rescue both. Instead the lifeguard must choose, because trying to save both could end in saving neither. Logically, we would say that in this scenario, the lifeguard

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The field of law still holds a first-place title among other professions, but it is a title that law really, really does not want to hold: The practice of law is the least diverse profession in the United States. American lawyers are 88 percent white, and two-thirds male, and that

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This past week, the nation has been locked in yet another moral argument that breaks along political lines: In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, should the U.S. accept Syrian refugees or not? Both sides are grounding their stances in moral argument, but those arguments diverge. One side

By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: When it comes to witness testimony, “rehearsal” is a dirty word. The term connotes that the witness is learning testimony by rote and has been spoon-fed by their attorneys. Liars rehearse their stories, the perception goes, while honest witnesses simply tell the truth.