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Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini (Simon

If youre not careful, you might lose the case before you even get to opening statements!

Dr. Robert Cialdini, the author of the ground-breaking book on persuasion, Influence (another must-read book you should add to your trial lawyers library), is back to show you why effective persuasion doesn’t always rest within the message, but in the key moment before your message is presented.

If youre serious about trial work and serious about becoming a master persuader, you should read this book now. 

Your job in the courtroom requires that you master the ability to persuade jurors. You know that you cant change their attitudes, beliefs, or life experiences. Cialdini shows you dont need to — you just need to redirect the focus of their attention before they make any relevant actions.

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Posted on Friday, November 18, 2016 You Deserve NOTHING! by Elliott Wilcox

Did you hear Tony Romos press conference earlier this week? It was one of the classiest and most gracious speeches Ive heard in a long time.

In case you dont know what Im talking about, Romo was the 36-year old starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys (arguably the most coveted position in football).

Earlier this year he was injured, and forced to sit on the sidelines until he healed.

While he was out, the second-string quarterback (a 4th round rookie draft pick) stepped in to keep the team going.

Theres an unwritten rule in sports that you dont lose your job to injury, so everyone expected that Romo would be back at the starting QB position as soon as he was healthy.

But nobody predicted what the 4th-string rookie would do.

That rookie, Dak Prescott, took the helm of the Cowboys, leading them to an impressive 8-0 record.

A perfect record.

It doesnt get any better than that, does it?

So what should happen next?

Sure, you shouldnt lose your job because you got injured, but what happens when your replacement does an amazing job?

If you were an objective manager deciding what would be best for the team, your decision would be simple and easy to make: Go with the rookie and the perfect record.

But what if you had skin in the game?

Would it be an easy decision, or would it be tortuous?

Worse yet, what if it was your job on the line?

Would you be willing (or able?) to endorse the younger, better quarterback, knowing that it was the best decision for your team, even if it meant that you would lose that coveted job?

Objectively, it might be an easy decision, but from a personal perspective, its an impossibly difficult thing to do.

I dont know about you, but I dont think Id be magnanimous enough to step aside, even if it was in the best interest of my team.

But Tony Romo was selfless.

He pledged his support to the rookie QB, because he felt it was in the best interest of his team.

In his speech (which you must watch if you want a class on building character check it out here), he said:

Its in this moment you find out who you really are, and what youre really about. You see football is a meritocracy. You arent handed anything. You earn everything, every single day, over and over again you have to prove it. Thats the way that the NFL, football works. 

Heres the important trial lawyer lesson that I want you to take away from his speech. Thats the way life works, too.

If you want to be a great trial lawyer, you have to earn it.

Every. Single. Day.

What have you done to earn it?

Did you win the biggest verdict ever seen in your courthouse?

Did you win your last 10 cases in a row?

Did you win every motion you argued this month?

Congratulations! Im really proud of you! Seriously, those are great accomplishments, and Im really, really proud of you.

Those victories are Amazing!

Those victories areFantastic!

Those victories are Last weeks news!

Heres The BAD News

You cant survive on your past victories.

Your next client doesnt care what you did for your last client. They dont care what you did for your last 100 clients.

The client standing beside you in court this morning doesnt care that you won your last 100 trials in a row, he only cares about his case, and what you can do for him now.

He expects you to be the best lawyer in the courthouse today, and expects you to do a great job for him now.

Those victories have already been cashed and spent, so if you want to maintain your status as a top-level attorney, you have to prove it all over again every time you step into the courtroom.

But Heres the GREAT News

It also doesnt matter if youve lost your last 100 trials in a row.

It doesnt matter if youve screwed up, it doesnt matter if youve been lazy, and it doesnt matter if youve been less than you know you should be.

Your past doesnt equal your future.

That means you start your next trial with a clean slate.

This trial is a brand-new opportunity for you to excel.

These jurors have no idea what your past looks like. They have no idea whether youve won every case youve ever tried, whether youve lost every case youve ever tried, or if youve never even tried a case before.

All theyll know is what you deliver once you walk through the courtroom doors.

Earn your spot on the team by giving them what they deserve.

Be completely prepared, and deliver the strongest, most persuasive arguments you can.

You want to be the starting quarterback?

You want to be the star of the show?

You want to be the trial lawyer that other lawyers fear, that judges trust, and that clients scramble to hire?

I dont know where you are right now, and I dont care what your past looks like. All I know is that, if you truly, truly want to be, you CAN be that lawyer.

Every week, youll have to earn it, but if you work hard enough, you can do it. I promise.

Just remember that every morning wipes out yesterdays victories, so you need to start fresh and honestly answer the question: Do I deserve the starting position?

Only you can answer that question. For your clients sake, I hope the answer is always Yes.

Posted on Monday, November 14, 2016 Trumps Secrets for Courtroom Success by Elliott Wilcox

So, in case you didnt hear, we had an election this week

The night before the election, I was listening to Keepin it 1600, a podcast hosted by former Obama administration aides. They were unabashedly confident that Secretary Clinton had the keys to the White House in her pocket.

24 hours later, they, like many others in the news media, were scratching their heads and asking, What happened?!?

Every poll, from ABC News and Reuters to CNN and FOX news had Clinton winning, so. How did Trump win?

To quote the Keepin it 1600 podcast from the day after the election:
It turns out that Donald Trumps theory of the case was just better.

Regardless of your personal feelings about the outcome, there are some important trial lawyer lessons to take away from Trumps victory.

Lesson #1: These Voters Will Be Your Jurors
First of all, its important to remember that the people who voted for Trump are the same people who will be serving on jury duty Monday morning.

It doesnt matter whether you agree with them or not They will be the people deciding your clients fate on Monday.

If you cant (or wont) understand how the Trump voters feel or why they voted for him, you wont be able to talk to them or persuade them to vote for your client.

Invest the time to find out how the jurors in your county voted and how they think. I dont know if your local election supervisor offers the same level of data that I have available in my jurisdiction, but I can pull up polling data by precinct, giving me the power to touch the pulse of different parts of my community. Get it and study it its worth the time.

While youre at it, talk to people who voted differently than you.

The internet lets us withdraw from opposing viewpoints and surround ourselves with news that we agree with.

Thats the kiss of death for a trial lawyer.

The greatest trial lawyers know how to put themselves in other peoples shoes and feel what they feel. Clintons husband was a master at that. People mocked him when he said, I feel your pain, but his ability to convey his empathy was one of his keys to winning the White House.

Before your next trial, you need to put on their shoes and walk around for awhile.

Go somewhere where people hold diametrically opposing points of view from your own, and make the effort to understand why they believe what they believe.

You dont need to change your mind, and you certainly dont want to try to change theirs. Your only goal is to understand why they feel the way they do.

This is a spin-off from one of my previous recommendations, where I recommended going to Wal*Mart at 3 AM. You probably dont normally shop at Wal*Mart at 3am, but these people are going to be your jurors, so as the trial lawyer, its your job to understand why they feel what they feel and why they think what they think.

If you dont, your client will pay a hefty price.

Lesson #2: Talk to Be Understood
There was lots of commentary about how we are dealing with low information jurors who cant (or wont) understand anything over a 6th grade vocabulary level.

One important critique that I saw repeated time and time again was that Clinton didnt know how to talk to these voters.

You probably didnt have any difficulty understanding her. You never got lost in the middle of a speech and said, Huh?

But youre not most people.

In the Rolling Stone article, President Trump: How America Got It So Wrong, Matt Taibi wrote, we heard voters saying they were literally incapable of understanding the words coming out of Hillary Clintons mouth.

To illustrate the point, he quoted a supporter he met at a Trump event who told him, When [Trump] talks, I actually understand what hes saying. But, like, when fricking Hillary Clinton talks, it just sounds like a bunch of bulls***.

Her problem, of course, is the same as yours: She has a law school education.

Compare Clintons speech style to Trumps.

Commentators said that Trumps language may have been the simplest political rhetoric thats ever been used on the campaign trail.

Voters never had to stretch their brains to understand what he was saying. He spoke at (or below) their comprehension level, never above. No one listening to Trump speak ever walked away scratching their heads and saying, Huh. I dont understand what he was trying to say.

On a personal level, that rankles me at my core. I dont want to live in an Idiocracy world. The smarter we are, the better we are, and I hope that as trial lawyers we can use our considerable power to educate the citizenry and raise the level of discourse.

But thats a goal we should work towards outside of the courtroom.

If you try to undertake that goal inside the courtroom, you should be brought up on ethics charges, because youre neglecting your responsibility to your client.

To best represent your client, you must be understood.

When jurors cant understand you, they cant be persuaded. Thats why you must meet them where they are and as they are.

One of the best examples of this can be found in Pauls letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:19-22):

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

To put it succinctly: He met them where they were.

He didnt try to change them or change their beliefs He met them where they were, accepted them as they were, and spoke to them standing in a place of common ground.

You must do the same.

If your jury consists of Rhodes Scholars and rocket scientists, you may perorate with as many sesquipedalian words as you please.

But if your jurors have difficulty understanding 8th grade level language, you need to dial down your vocabulary.

Heres the important point though You cant talk down to them, and you need to feel comfortable and confident, regardless of the vocabulary level at which youre speaking.

Clinton wasnt.

Shes very comfortable speaking at the highest vocabulary levels (listen to her speaking at committee meetings and hear how confident and composed she sounds), but when she tries to dial down her language, you can sense her discomfort. Its not her, its not her native tongue, and shes not comfortable speaking it. Voters (and jurors) pick up on that type of internal conflict.

Trump, however, is very comfortable speaking at that level. Its not because hes uneducated (he earned a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business and Ive heard hes a voracious reader), its because hes trained himself to shift comfortably between different vocabulary levels.

Dont let your law school education prevent you from being understood.

Get comfortable speaking at every level. Speak with people smarter than you, speak with people dumber than you, and speak with everyone in-between. Speak with elementary school students and speak with academic scholars and speak with the guy behind the counter at the gas station

he more you talk, the more comfortable youll feel, and the easier it will be for you to talk to anyone.

Lesson #3: Target the Most Valuable Voters

According to results from a few hours ago, Clinton is winning the popular vote, leading by about 1% According to Google, the current tally is 60,072,551 votes for Trump, and 60,467,601 votes for Clinton.

But not all votes are weighted equally.

Clinton may have won more total votes, but Trump won the votes he needed to win the Electoral College.

Look at the types of counties where he resoundingly won:

·  Rural counties: 90.5%
·  Counties where less than 5% of the residents were foreign born: 91.9%
·  Counties where median income was less than $50,000: 88.5%
·  Counties where less than 20% of adults have college degrees: 92.2%
·  Counties with populations less than 10,000: 93.7%

Separating leaders from the sheep dramatically changes the dynamics of jury deliberation

By winning the popular votes in those areas, it delivered an electoral vote landslide: 290 votes to 228.

At the end of the day, the only votes that matter are the electoral votes. (Trump is the fifth president to be elected despite losing the popular vote.)

Heres the trial lawyer lesson: Just like not all votes are weighted equally, not all jurors are weighted equally, either.

Some people are leaders, and some people are followers.

If you can get the leaders on your side, it has a disproportionate impact on your verdicts.

Targeting the right jurors during jury selection is one of the most effective ways to win more trials. If you can identify leaders in the jury pool who will be favorable to your client, they are the most valuable people in the courtroom, and you should do everything you can to seat them on your jury.

Officially, they only get one vote, the same as everyone else.

But practically speaking, they count for more than that, because they have the power to persuade other jurors and rally more votes. Your dream juror is a strong, persuasive leader who truly believes in your clients case. If you can identify and rally those potential voters, your client will win.

One final thought on all of this
Politics is ugly. Campaigns, especially presidential campaigns, are often conducted with a scorched earth mentality.

But were all in this together, so afterward, we must pick up the pieces and move forward towards the goal of a better country.

To quote Lord Baelish in Game of Thrones, We only make peace with our enemies. Thats why its called ‘making peace’.

Clinton began that process in her concession speech, and she said, I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.

We should all wish the same.

Frustrated with Your Courtroom Results?

If you're like most of my readers, you're committed to winning in the courtroom.

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That's exactly why I wrote 10 Critical Mistakes That Trial Lawyers Make (And How to Avoid Them!)

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