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Recognizing and Responding to the Subtle (and Not So Subtle) Gender Issues that Affect the Outcome of Trials
It's time to rethink your notions of gender — and the cultural conventions that determine the success or failure of every human communication. Those conventions come into play each time a speaker or audience member — man, woman, lawyer, witness, judge or juror — walks into a courtroom.
And that's what this program deals with — successful communication strategies in a world where only a small part of understanding is based on words.
After years of practice, teaching, writing and research, we understand that the difference between the sexes — gender — is one of the many identifiable paths along which perceptions move on the way to fact-finding. Like the soundtrack of a successful film, gender works as an emotional stream that accompanies every presentation, constantly enhancing or undercutting what the presenter says and does.
Let's be clear from the outset. "Gender Issues in Advocacy" isn't a program about past slights or political sensibilities. We deal with recognizing and removing the cultural barriers to meaningful communication.
Select the subject matter that addresses your training needs, programming interests, or CLE requirements. Let us know how we can answer your questions about what we do-and how we can customize our programs to give you the training that will forever transform the way you and your colleagues look at litigation!
Fundamentals I: Case Theory
Opening Statements and Closing Arguments
Gender and Case Theory: Identifying — and Transforming — the Gender Issues that Undermine Case Planning
The problem with today's ubiquitous "trial as story" approach is not that it is too fanciful, but that it does not go far enough in forcing lawyers to consider how stories actually work. Indeed, trials, like all narratives, fit within identifiable story patterns — genres — that ultimately define the way audiences receive and apply them. Differences between men and women can interfere with the communication of the messages from those stories. Our focus is on identifying, using and defusing gender issues in case theory and presentation.
Gender and Speeches: Opening and Closings that Resonate
We take the lessons of the great orators to craft a narrative that makes sense, clearly relates the facts and introduces the witnesses who present them. Here we explore the use of images, narrative, rhetoric, organization, and accompanying communication skills to craft a speech that keeps the jurors' attention and connects them to your case. We look at problems raised by culturally dictated impulses to conform to a particular style. We explore the range of available emotions that our theme presents to understand how one decides how far to go. We examine the visual and technological aids that will make our speech more powerful and identify where our opponents' visual aids are vulnerable. We explore how to confront or adjust the emotional temperature set by our opponent.
Fundamentals II: Questioning
Direct and Cross-Examination:
Direct Examination: Effective direct examination is an interesting conversation between a credible lawyer and a convincing witness. Through lecture, demonstration and multimedia clips we explain techniques that make the lawyer an interesting and credible questioner. We illustrate the kinds of questions that will help the fact finder understand your witness and the information that your witness sponsors. We diagnose obstacles to establishing rapport between the fact finder, the lawyer and the witness, and assist you in the decisions about visual aids and images.
Cross-Examination: "So, how aggressive should I be on cross-examination?" In our experience, this is a question women worry about too often and men too infrequently. Finding the most effective approach for cross-examination is a decision based on a myriad of factors, gender among them. Here we explore, explain and demonstrate methods that allow the examiner to be "in control." We examine the implications of differing styles, enhancing the ability of each lawyer to increase their range. We have drills and techniques that identify and assist you in overcoming common problems such as self-censorship, over-deference and defensiveness. Additionally, our approach promotes an understanding of the gender-based and culturally motivated attitudes affecting this challenge.
Gender and Persuasive Techniques: Targeting the Question, Posture, and Presentation Styles that Sabotage even the Best Claims
Whether your forum is the courtroom or the boardroom, whether your challenge is negotiation or litigation, effective communication is your calling card. Our goal is to help you find and fine-tune your style and your voice. With the assistance of a nationally recognized communication expert we work with you (and your witnesses, if we are assisting in an actual case) to enhance communication skills. The program begins with an engaging lecture/demonstration on the fundamentals of effective communication and includes one-on-one coaching with you or your witnesses to improve speech, word choices, language, attitude, intent and confidence.
Through interactive media presentations we help to promote an understanding of what jurors see in order to use and defuse the gender images that jurors and clients have been hardwired to receive. We look at contemporary films and TV to see how women litigators, interviewers and authority figures are presented. Then we examine how those images can dictate and confine jurors' and witnesses' interpretations of a lawyer's message and affect a jurors' ability to understand and connect with women lawyers or witnesses. We explore how women lawyers subconsciously fit their own styles and strategies into mass-marketed images. We develop an understanding of how real folks see women in positions of authority. We discuss these and other topics compared with contemporary jury research information.
Fundamentals III: Experts
Your expert is a woman, you are a woman or some of your jurors are women. This expert program addresses the skills involved in preparation of you and your expert for direct and cross-examination with an eye to how gender issues can affect credibility, learning styles and perceptions of authority. Through a combination of lecture, demonstration, interactive exercises and media clips we look at presentation styles and how they are influenced by gender. We explore myths about jurors' reactions to women witnesses, especially "eggheads," and we develop ways to personalize the witness and enable the lawyer, witness or fact finder to deal credibly with a male-oriented scientific culture. We examine the embedded responses we have to women as "explainers," based on our childhood experience with teachers. We explore obstacles, to conducting effective cross examinations and earn how to help our own experts reach their audiences most clearly and persuasively. We discuss the use and abuse of images, presentational software and tactile and visual aids. This presentation can also include the strategic and legal issues presented by Daubert with guidance on how to handle a Daubert hearing.
Essential Applications: Ideas to Address Real-Life Problems
Focus Groups: How to Use Them to Spot Gender and Cultural Issues in Your Case
We need to understand: 1) the factual problems in the case, 2) the gender or cultural landmines that might prevent a lawyer or witness from being heard, 3) the themes that will resonate with the jury and 4) the available range of emotion for those themes. Focus groups can be a valuable resource toward understanding these issues. We use single or multiple focus groups to discover valuable information about the lawyers and the case that extends well beyond a targeted case (or demonstrative case file). This teaching method gives us insights as to how real people see facts, witnesses and us. With this information in hand we discuss adjustments in style, narrative and witness presentation. We gain insights about jurors' life experiences or backgrounds that might assist or hinder them in connecting with the case or the lawyers.
Problem Spotting/Developing Strategies to Correct Recurring Situations
By targeting real life situations we assess when and how we (whether men or women) conform our presentations to given culturally dictated gender models or roles. We look at specific incidents such as the preparation of the dismissive witness, depositions with obstreperous opposing counsel, exchanges with condescending judges, and negotiations with dominating or patronizing opponents; and we identify and explore what culturally or gender biased model is being applied in those circumstances and try to find effective ways to break out of it. We look at situations where problems are not gender-related, but may initially be mistakenly perceived as gender-related. We examine the better, non-culturally dictated ways to respond to these and comparable situations.
Learn-By-Doing Sessions. Learn-by-doing sessions allow workshop participants to demonstrate what they've learned in small-group demonstrations, with immediate feedback, constructive group critique, and individual performance-tape review by one of our presenters.
Allow us to adapt the materials you provide from one of your office's past/present cases to our programs. (We'll work with you to address preparation costs, packet assembly, confidentiality concerns and the questions particular to your office resulting from this case. Let us demonstrate our effective approaches to facts you know!)
Interviewing, Fact Investigation and Active Listening
One or Two Day Interviewing, Fact Investigation and Active Listening Program
- This program will utilize the basic learning/teaching model through a series of workshops and simulated interviews with constructive faculty critique and evaluation. In addition, the program will include lectures and discussions concerning fact investigation, interviewing tactics, and ethical considerations. The course is designed to develop your skills and allow you to think tactically and strategically about fact investigation, interviewing practice, and will touch on how you will use the information you learned during your fact investigation and interviews in a deposition of the primary witness for the opposite party.
- Lecture and Workshop Topics Include:
- Initial Client Interview.
- Ethical issues concerning transactional lawyer's duty (if any) to the "opposing" party in the transaction;
- Conflicts of Interest: Can you represent all defendants in this litigation? If so, how do you handle disclosures and consents?
- Basic Questioning Techniques for Information Gathering, The Lawyer's Dual Role as "Investigator" and "Producer
- Techniques for the Interview of a non-client witness.
- Witness Preparation. Here we shift the focus from fact gathering (lawyer as "investigator") to interviews in anticipation of testimony (lawyer as "producer").
- Witness Challenges: recognizing them, understanding them and dealing with them effectively
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