I had the honor last week of speaking at the Belli Seminar,
an event organized by the Santa Clara Trial Lawyers Association, held at the Lincoln Law School, in San Jose. A day-long
collection of non-stop 10-minute presentations, the seminar was moderated by
none other than Melvin Belli Jr., and featured many well-known speakers,
including Mark Geragos, Jury Consultants Amy Singer and Tammy Metzger, Tommy (Prince
of Torts) Malone, Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College President Jude Basile, and
several top Plaintiff’s attorneys from California, Washington, Texas and New
York. I can honestly say that this was one of the best and most educational
events I’ve ever attended.
While any of the faculty could have easily covered the entire day
on their own, the unique part of this program was that it truly forced each
presenter to give the “best of their best,” since we all had only 10 minutes
for each presentation, followed by five minutes for questions. My notes and “take-homes”
are likely nearly identical to what they’d have been, had each speaker covered
an hour or more.
What was interesting to me was that many of the presentations
covered similar topics, but each showed a unique approach to the same end goal.
Some used no technology at all, while others did. One interesting point brought
out by one of the speakers was the desire to put an “image” into your jurors’
minds. I helped to demonstrate how to do that, and how to make sure it’s the
right image, and that they all have the same image in mind. Carefully-crafted
words often cannot replace a visual display of the evidence.
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| Image by LegalVision, San Francisco |
Jury Consultant Tammy Metzger covered the Reptilian Brain
and reading micro-expressions. This was fascinating stuff that you may not even notice – even though you can “feel”
the emotions of others around you.
Jury Consultant Amy Singer discussed the Casey Anthony
trial, and how she directed the analysis of over 40,000 social media followers.
She also shared a demonstration on how to do it even on smaller or low profile cases.
The program wrapped up with a brief Voir Dire of 8 jurors. This
was a great learning experience, as was the discussion afterward.
I’ve never seen this type of program presented before, but
leave it to Silicon Valley to drive the innovation. For the record, I was the
only one presenting from my iPad (using TrialPad). When I asked, well over half
of the attendees raised their hands, claiming to own an iPad. The Silicon Valley Plaintiffs Bar is certainly ahead of some other groups I've presented to. Thanks to Ed
Vasquez for putting this together and inviting me. After a long week in trial,
it was time well spent.
Just received a nice thank-you note John Shepardson, Belli Seminar Chairman:
Thank
you so much for presenting at the seminar. The visuals are huge in what
we do, and
Mel Belli was a pioneer in Demonstrative Evidence. Please keep in touch.
The feedback from
our members has been hugely positive.
