As the mattress sales wrap up from Presidents' Day, I thought it might be valuable to pause and reflect on this little-known gift from the first president. Apparently, in his youth, Washington was assigned a penmanship exercise of copying the rules of civility as drafted by others before him, and perhaps he editorialized in that process. Everyone likes to think that a 16-year-old Washington wrote these rules, but I think it is more likely that they were associated with Jesuits hundreds of years earlier. I've always felt a special connection to George Washington, having grown up on property that was

Mastering courtroom presentations involves more than just knowing the law; it requires understanding how to engage your audience without overwhelming them. I've talked about the redundancy effect/ split attention effect many times, including earlier this month. See 5 Alternatives to Persuasion Killing Bullet Points From Our Litigation Consultants. I think this may be the most common trial presentation mistake I see from even the very best trial attorneys. Understanding the Split-Attention Effect in Courtroom Presentations The split-attention effect occurs when an individual's focus is divided between multiple sources of information, leading to cognitive overload and decreased comprehension. This phenomenon is