The Core Method Workshops in 2016 will be held:

May 4-7 in Chicago at the Godfrey Hotel (this is a change in the previously-announced dates)

September 8-11 in San Francisco

Watch this space for more details and how to register. Signup on the right of this page to receive emails as more information becomes available.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Thursday, October 16, 2014
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm Registration and Reception
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm Introducing the 3 Cores—Warrior, Emotional and Logical; Human themes at trial; Listening exercise

Friday, October 17, 2014
7:00 am to 8:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am to 10:45 am Meditation for lawyers discussion and practice: Sitting Meditation; Walking Meditation
10:45 am to 11:00 am Break
11:00 am to noon Mindfulness and practicing law
Noon to 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm Learn Aikido and Japanese swordsmanship principles as they apply to trial
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Break
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm The Warrior Core during discovery, mediation and trial; Embracing the uncertainty of trial

Saturday, October 18, 2014
7:00 am to 8:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am to 10:45 am Connecting with jurors; Storytelling strategies
10:45 am to 11:00 am Break
11:00 am to noon Expanding vocal range, inflection and expressiveness
Noon to 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm Acting exercises for lawyers; Controlling stage fright for lawyers; Invisibly directing where the judge and jurors look
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Break
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm The Emotional Core during discovery, mediation and trial; Simplifying the case around a Core Truth; Using defense depositions to prove your case; Damages arguments in closing

Sunday, October 19, 2014
8:00 am to 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am to noon The Logical Core during discovery, mediation and trial
Mind mapping your case
Putting it all together—lawyering effectively and compassionately to leave the world a better place

Martial art training teaches us to center. We center in the hara–the point in the body just an inch below the belly button. Zen training teaches us to focus on our breath. From this place of being centered and focused, we can begin to explore the emotional and logical realities of a case. These basic practices can be very powerful building blocks for courtroom presence and presentation. They have helped me receive record breaking settlements and verdicts.I believe th

Jay Rinsen Weik

Jay Rinsen Weik (a fifth degree Aikdo black belt and an ordained Zen Buddhist priest) has helped me develop exercises specifically for trial lawyers. We are curious if there are enough other lawyers interested in these methods to support an interactive seminar (including swords and meditation) on Zen. Aikido and lawyering..

Please register for more information on this topics by entering your name to the right.

The idea of The Influentials is that critical mass for ideas and products come from one in ten Americans who are “influentials.” A great example of this is the Jones Family in the mediocre-but-thought-provoking movie The Joneses. You can identify Influentials through 11 questions.

These 11 questions have successfully predicted the foreman of my last few juries. The questions are:

How many of you have attended a public meeting on town or school affairs?

How many of you have written or called a politician at a local, state or national level?

How many of you have served on a committee in a local organization?

How many of you were an officer of a club or organization?

How many of you have attended a rally or speech or protest?

How many of you have written to the editor/called a live broadcast to express an opinion?

How many of you were active in a group trying to influence public policy or government?

How many of you have made a speech?

How many of you have worked for a political party?

How many of you have written an article for a magazine or newspaper?

How many of you have held or run for office?

Mike Myers, Rachel Mason, Jimmy Carrane, Andy Dick and Mo Collins                                              (c) used with permission

While it might not seem like a natural combination, I have learned a lot about being a better trial lawyer, and person, from improv. I have done some work informally in groups and with Second City improv instructor Jimmy Carrane.

What does improv have to do with law? When doing improv, you work with your partners and don’t contradict them. Always make your partner look good. This is relevant to trial in jury selection.

One way to do this is an improv exercise called “yes, and…” Whatever somebody else says, you respond “yes, and…” So, if they say “I love to eat pickled mouse brains,” you might respond something like “Yes, and it makes mint chocolate chip ice cream taste even better.” Now, this is a silly example; please don’t read too much into it. And still (notbut but and), it is helpful. If you sweetie says to you “Do you love me?” you’re answer had better not be “yes, but…” We hear yes, but as no.

When a potential juror tells you in jury selection that there are too many frivolous law suits, don’t answer “Yes, but don’t you think that lawsuits make society safer?” That’s fighting with the juror (and just as bad, I think, trying to persuade the juror in jury selection; not because you’re not allowed to persuade, but because you generally can not persuade). Try “Yes, and some people would also say that lawsuits have society safer? How do you feel about that?”  Or even “Yes, and what else can you say about lawsuits?” And get more from that juror or another juror. I prefer to get that juror or another to talk about lawsuits making society safer instead of me volunteering it.

The lesson is to try to remove but from your vocabulary. It gets in the way of creating an emotional connection with a juror, which is the key to persuasion (which will be the subject of my next post.)

So, how is the book? Excellent. At 178 pages, it is concise in its message–the jury is the hero of the trial. You might read through this quickly and miss the gems in this book because they are so simple, but so few lawyers embrace them. And it is the simple that is usually sublime. We can learn a lot from Hollywood screenwriters who know how to hold an audience’s attention. We, as movie viewers, are used to the little guy overcoming the odds and succeeding because the hero steps out of his everyday role and does something extraordinary to make the world a better place. In order to succeed, the hero at trial must be the jury. The beauty of Carl Bettinger’s book is that he takes the reader beyond theory and gives specific examples, including transcript testimony from his cases, of how to do this.

Anybody who’s heard me speak lately has heard me talk about the ideas of story and journey and hero as part of my Fusion idea of trial. Story is one of the 14 ideas that I use to create a case presentation that maximizes the chance of success. Carl recognizes, and I know uses, many of these other ideas as well: Rules of the Road, Reptile, and others. He explains in his book that the idea of Hero is only one part of trial. I believe that it is an essential part, and thank Carl for adding this book to the excellent trial literature currently available at Trial Guides.