Once again, I was reminded about the people who support the lead trial attorney. The lead attorney and 2nd chair attorneys get the attention, like the rock star. Like Ozzy, Mick, or Geddy, who are lead singers, the lead attorneys are in the spotlight (or hot seat). But, behind them, there is often a small army, or at least a platoon. The associates, paralegals, assistants, secretaries, receptionists, IT staff, and experts, consultants and many others work in support roles to assist the lead attorney in all aspects of litigation. As trial consultants, we depend on various parts of this army

Well, here we are. It’s 2020. Lots of celebrations, talk about the new decade, and the roaring 20s. But, many of us think of it with the term “hindsight” attached, as in “hindsight is 20/20,” meaning that when looking backward, things that were once unclear become clear. Monday morning quarterbacking is related. If we see an outcome, sometimes we can see how, for better or worse, that outcome was reached. Hindsight is the opposite of foresight, which some people possess to greater degrees than others. Some people have tremendous foresight and can imagine, better than others, how things will turn

This post is prompted by a comment made by someone with whom we frequently work in our litigation consulting business. He remarked how he hoped clients would recognize the value of our work, and his work, and see it as an investment, not just another litigation expense or cost. As I explained to someone yesterday, someone who called to inquire about a “focus group,” I know the services we offer are expensive. There is no doubt about that, even though we know we are not as expensive as some of our competitors. (Nor are we as inexpensive as others. But

Melissa and I do our best to keep politics out of these posts, as well as our professional lives. So, this is the disclaimer, this post is not about specific politics, politicians, or even impeachment, though the topic arises from various political battles of the day. Unfortunately, I need to set the stage for my post with some political context. During the recent investigations related, mostly, to the President, leading up to and including the impeachment, there has been a narrative that attempts to conflate what he is accused of having done with what others are alleged to have done.

Much has been in the news lately about people blowing whistles on allegations of corruption and abuse. Without discussing these specific situations, I want to address the act of sounding an alarm, or blowing a whistle. I have written something on this previously, but it warrants revisiting. I will start by saying that, if you haven’t been there, you may not comprehend this, but, I’ve been there. I’ve been a whistleblower. In fact, both Melissa and I have been there. And, taking a stand against what we saw as fraudulent acts by our then employer has had long term costs

I recently read an article about a “brand new, state of the art jury selection program to bring data science to jury selection.” That is not a direct quote, but a synopsis of the news story I read about the program. (Disclaimer: I don’t really know anything about this program other than what was in the news and on the firm’s website.) This particular program is available only to plaintiffs’ lawyers so I will not address it specifically, but rather, the concept that something like this is often seen as a magic bullet. Despite the claim in the article, this

As someone who thrives on forms and checklists, I also know that it is critical to improve them, as well as update them. I learned this practice from my photography mentor, Jon Peters. I’ve adapted what I did as a photographer, that is, providing a service to clients, to what I/we do as trial consultants, providing various services to clients. There are lots of details to track about a particular case, and about all active cases. One is a form/checklist for case intakes I created for another employer and then modified and improved for Magnus on day 1 – way

We once had an employee who was full of lessons for us. She worked hard, but sometimes she had to work extra hard to overcome her own limitations. This resulted in her inability to focus on a question at hand. And, I don’t know if it was to be dismissive in order to return to “her work,” but, on numerous occasions she answered “yes” when asked if something was done. Such as, “Has the hotel signed the confidentiality agreement?”; “Does the hotel have free parking for the mock jurors?”; “Does the hotel have room service?”; “Is there an airport shuttle?”;

A client who has made several comments that have prompted prior blogs mentioned recently that, sometimes, things look great in the war room, but in the bright lights of the courtroom, they fall flat. I think he made a great point. As a photographer, I know that one of the keys to success in photography is photographing things in the right light. That is, the light most flattering to the subject. This could be front light, back light, side light, Rembrant lighting, low key, high key, and so on. Sometimes the light is too hot, sometimes it is too dim,

I was recently contemplating a question commonly asked by our clients – which alternative is best? For example, a client recently asked, “We can call the situation a complication, we can call it unforeseen, we can call it an accident; which is best?” For whatever reason that day, my mind did, as it often does, thought of song lyrics. So, with apologies to Led Zeppelin, I’ll reveal that what I thought of were the words to one of the top songs of all time (“Stairway to Heaven”), which goes like this: Yes, there are two paths you can go by