By Katherine James Normally I wouldn’t be comparing a television series to a stage play. But we aren’t living in normal times, are we? From both my point of view as a theatre person and my point of view as a trial consultant I am spending a ton of time in the brave new virtual world of ZOOM. I’ve been preparing witnesses virtually for almost 10 years – so the format is really familiar as I continue that part of my world. What is completely unfamiliar is working in the live theatre via ZOOM. At this point I’ve had

By Alan Blumenfeld Founding Director ACT of Communication     Over the past 42 years of working with lawyers, we’ve always focused on behavior. That is, what lawyers call demeanor and so much more. Your attitude, tone, ability to connect with all of the people in the room. This goes way past simple “eye contact”. Connection is about your passion for what you are saying and your honest ability to advocate, convey that passion…hand it over to your listeners. Judge or Jury. The recent trial of Paul Manafort is a perfect example of a situation where the lawyers were: well

By Katherine James   This week’s episode of Bull involves another criminal case – with Dr. Bull and his crack trial consulting team working on the side of the defense once more. This week I was really struck by the fact that we as television viewers are just not used to “the good guys” working on the side of criminal defendants. Dick Wolf and his myriad of Law And Order franchises really have been centered on prosecutors and police officers and detectives as the good guys and the “accused” as the bad guys. As is almost every show that involves the law

By Katherine James   CBS announced this week that they are “picking up” BULL for another season. So…that means that in the court of public opinion, in which BULL is the most watched new series of this season, the jury has decided it is having a great time watching this show. As am I! This week’s episode focused on trying a pharmaceutical patent case in a mythical town in West Texas called “Callisto”. Those of us who know and love working on patent cases know that this is actually a town in East Texas called either “Marshall” or “Tyler”. Maybe

By Katherine James   Once again Bull showed us that Good Television and real life are not the same thing. BUT once again, there were many fantastic nuggets of truth in this week’s highly entertaining episode. I am not going to give you all of them – but I am going to talk about the ones that I work with in my very real life as a trial consultant. Again, I will leave other trial consultants to talk about their areas of specialization as they relate to this episode. I’m also going to include a little Hollywood tidbit at the

Episode One “The Necklace” and Episode Two “The Woman In 8D” By Katherine James   By now you either have or have not watched the “trial consulting” show about that won the television ratings game as “most watched new show on television” when it premiered: Bull I surely watched the premiere episode: “The Necklace”. Twice. And I watched this past week’s, “The Woman In 8D”. And I am going to watch the coming weeks for as long as it lasts. And I am going to comment on it from time to time. In all candor, I was going to comment

Posted by Tara Trask on September 24, 2016 Reposted by Katherine James on September 26, 2016   The legal community is abuzz about the new CBS drama “Bull”. Played by Michael Weatherly of NCIS fame, Dr. Jason Bull is a “brilliant, brash and charming” trial consultant said to be loosely based on Dr. Phil’s early career as a trial consultant. I worked for Phil McGraw’s consulting firm back in the 90’s, and I can confirm many similarities between the whip-smart, funny Dr. Bull and my mentor. Of course there are differences, and the show itself is a somewhat fantastical and

Katherine James:   LOVE & MERCY is a film to which you should run and not walk. If you have always wondered what was really going on in the life of Brian Wilson as he struggled with art and fame and love as he created the sound of a generation, your questions will be answered here. If you enjoy amazing performances by wonderful actors, this is the film for you. Paul Dano is just brilliant as Brian Wilson in the “past” and John Cusack equally amazing as Brian Wilson in the “future”. Paul Giamatti is just terrifying as Dr. Eugene

Katherine James:   My sister, Laura Ellen James, lived and died on February 5, 1955. She would have been 60 years old this year. For a year I thought to myself, “I would love to honor her birthday in some way in 2015 – give her some kind of birthday bash. After all, I would have given her a big party if she and I had spent those 60 years together.” Of course I told no one. There was really no one to tell. My mother, who is 89 years young, was in a coma that sad day in 1955.

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin Katherine:   This week I had the sheer pleasure of experiencing Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin at The Geffen Playhouse. My companion that evening was a wonderful director and producer I’ve known for over 30 years. I turned her onto Seth Rudetsky and she turned me onto Hershey Felder whose extensive bio begins but doesn’t end in the cast notes. He has created these amazing musical biographies of such stars as Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt and Bernstein. He has performed his one-person shows over 4,500 times. His Irving Berlin show is almost 2 hours long and he plays