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Showing posts from January, 2019

The Trial Lawyer: What it Takes to Win, 2nd edition

The ABA Section of Litigation has recently published the second edition of The Trial Lawyer: What it Takes to Win by David Berg . This book begins in Chapter 1 with a discussion of the techniques of persuasion used by trial lawyers. Advice on matters of informal discovery such as getting to know clients, dealing with nonparty witnesses and investigating the case are covered in Chapter 2 on the pretrial phase. Formal discovery, especially depositions with respect to preparing clients and advice on taking depositions, is also explored in this chapter. The author uses the 1983 case, Pennzoil v. Texaco , to illustrate trial techniques discussed in the book with several images including the Memorandum of Agreement and is the focus of Chapter 4. There is an entire chapter devoted the preparation of witnesses for both direct and cross-examination. The importance of jury studies, opening and closing arguments are also reviewed. This book is now available in the library ( KF8915.B448 2018 ) o