Ideas and Groups
Working as a group––its own complex puzzle. “The three main factors affecting a team’s cohesion (working together well) are: environmental, personal, and leadership.”[1]Varying perspectives, differing viewpoints, joined to solve a single complex problem. How can each member of the group be successful? How can one person assist, or resist, another to reach an optimal solution? […]
Finding Hidden Treasure
“All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.” ––Samantha Power Standing in another’s shoes implies assuming a point of view different from one’s own. You’re seeing things from another’s frame of reference, from their sense of perspective. The angle of vision, the corridor of approach, the nature and extent of indistinct outline and […]
Producing the Plaintiff
You’re seated next to your client at a large table, opposing counsel on the other side. Testimony that’s accurate, clear, persuasive, and appropriate––that’s at least one of your goals. For the young lawyer, here are some general guidelines: Keep the supply of facts flowing in response to cross-examination questions. Primarily most discovery depositions boil down […]
Connecting the Dots
An opening statement, we are told, is a recitation of the facts, preferably in chronological order, without embellishment, ornamentation, or argument. This probably explains why most opening statements are imprecise, generalized, and not particularly persuasive. Might there be a better way? “Psychological resilience refers to the ability of individuals to successfully respond to major changes, […]
The Analytics of Emotion
Emotion, we are told, has no place in law, lawsuits, or legal analysis. Soft, fuzzy, imprecise––emotion is not only valueless, it’s detrimental, destructive. Just imagine the consequences if emotion were to assume even a small role. There are distinct advantages, we’re assured, to emotionless, analytical thinking: it promotes accuracy; it cuts through the irrelevant, the […]
It’s Time to Start Over
Transportation accidents, maritime accidents, aviation accidents––all within our society have the right to bring civil lawsuits to recover damages except one: those who serve in the Armed Forces. Our servicemen and women are prohibited from filing civil actions against the United States in Federal Court for accidental injury or wrongful death if such occurs within […]
Recognizing Secondary Trauma
In recent years, a growing body of medical literature has established that severe trauma to one family member can result in a phenomenon known as “secondary traumatization”––post-traumatic symptoms exhibited by the other family members, particularly children, of those harmed. “During the past few decades, studies have shown that individuals in the trauma survivor’s close proximity […]
Snap Judgments
We meet someone for the first time. We instinctively “assess” that person, a process that can take place in a second or two. General appearance, speech patterns, verbal fluency, presence of an accent, ethnicity, age, gender, body habitus, configuration of the hands, eyes, and face––that’s it, we’ve made our split-second assessment. We have a distinct […]
Not to be Surprised
Changing the mind of a single person, whose views are antagonistic, presents a multidimensional puzzle, its own complex problem, one with no simple solution. You believe in the rightness of your idea. It’s common sense. Yet the other person you’re speaking to does not see things your way. This is baffling to you. You cannot […]
Specialization’s Limit
Specialization of labor––surely this makes the most sense. Hire the most highly qualified people, train them in a particular specialty, and then have them carry out that single specialized task. This has been the conventional wisdom for decades, used in a variety of contexts. There would seem to be no downside to this perfectly rational […]
