What inspired you to pursue a career in law, particularly in prosecution and advocacy? My father inspired me to be a lawyer. He loved the legal profession, particularly enjoying being a trial lawyer. He was active in the community and as a state legislator. This inspired me to want to be a lawyer and actively engage in serving the community.
How has your experience in the King County Prosecutor’s Office shaped your approach to legal education? As a prosecutor, your job is to do justice and serve the public. While I was in the office, I strove to have an in-house continuing legal education program that taught the role of the prosecutor as well as ethics and other prosecutorial skills.
What led you to transition from practicing law to teaching and training future legal professionals? There was a natural transition from practicing law to teaching. While I was in the prosecutor’s office, I engaged in training of deputy prosecutors. This included not only periodic in-office continuing legal education sessions but also designing an annual statewide continuing legal education course for prosecutors. After two and a half decades in the prosecutor’s office, it was time to do full time what I found to be rewarding – training prosecutors.
Can you share a particularly memorable case or courtroom experience that influenced your perspective on trial advocacy? One murder trial comes to mind. The murder-victim was a transient and a Native American and the defendant was a Caucasian. The defense contended that the state’s sole corroborating witness, who testified against the defendant, had committed the murder. The takeaway is that an all-white jury can set aside bias or prejudice they may have in reaching a just verdict.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching law students and training attorneys? I enjoy sharing my experiences and passing on what knowledge I have gained about practicing law to the students and lawyers. It is gratifying to follow their careers and see that they succeed, particularly if the former student becomes a teacher.
How has legal education evolved over the years, and what changes do you believe are still needed? I’ll focus on the post-law school education of prosecutors. One of the greatest advancements was the establishment of the National College of District Attorneys and the Career Prosecutors’ course that was conducted over a few weeks every year. The Career course was federally funded, and state and local prosecutor’s offices could send their attorneys there at no cost. Unfortunately, a few years back Congress decided not to fund it. It should be reinstituted.
What are the most common mistakes young attorneys make in pretrial and trial advocacy, and how can they avoid them? I’ve written books on both trial advocacy and pretrial advocacy and at the end of most chapters there is a checklist of things to do and not do. For example, the “Creating a Coordinated Discovery Plan” chapter has a checklist of over three and a half pages of things a lawyer should do and not do when do the following things among others: drafting interrogatories (e.g., pose questions that are unambiguous) and responding to requests for production (e.g., object to irrelevant, privileged, or unduly burdensome or annoying requests for production). To avoid mistakes, new lawyers can adhere to the checklists in the chapters.In your view, what are the essential skills that every trial lawyer must master?I’ve written a whole book on this. The bottom line is that you need to be credible, have a credible case theory, and be able to project that credibility to the fact finder.
What motivated you to write books on advocacy, jury selection, and legal visuals? My books are an outgrowth of both my experiences as a lawyer and as a teacher of law students and lawyers, and as a manager of and presenter at continuing legal education courses. Besides having the pleasure of having attended a myriad of trial advocacy courses, I served as the Director of Training with the National College of District Attorneys and as the Senior Training Counsel at the National Advocacy Center in South Carolina. In those two positions, I designed, managed, and taught at the courses.
How do you approach making complex legal topics accessible to readers and practitioners? A good approach to making complex legal topics accessible is to break the subject down into easily digestible bites. For example, if the subject were the evidentiary predicates for visual evidence, such as animations, demonstrative evidence, or real evidence, I’d begin with the fundamentals, such as covering whether the evidence is relevant, authentic, and admissible under Evidence Rule 403. Then, I would explore the evidentiary predicates for common types of evidence, such as demonstrative evidence, photographs, models, simulations and so on.
In Eradicating American “Prosecutor Misconduct”, what are the key solutions you propose for improving prosecutorial ethics? Providing prosecutors and defense counsel with the Handbook on Eradicating American “Prosecutor Misconduct” is one solution. The Handbook is designed to be a guidebook for both prosecutors and defense counsel. The Handbook spells out for prosecutors what a prosecutor is prohibited by law and the ethical rules from saying at trial so that prosecutors can avoid missteps, and it provides defense counsel with the grounds and the legal authority for an objection, a motion for mistrial, or an appeal if the trial judge overrules the objection or denies the motion.
Which of your books do you consider the most essential for aspiring trial attorneys, and why? I would recommend that aspiring trial attorneys consider Pretrial Advocacy, Sixth Edition, and Trial Advocacy, Fifth Edition, both published by Aspen because they provide comprehensive coverage of all aspects of pretrial and trial advocacy.
How has technology transformed trial advocacy, and what tools should modern attorneys be proficient in? Technology has enabled today’s trial attorneys to visually communicate their cases to juries is ways that were unimaginable a few years back. When the case is communicated visually, such as with an animation or a scene diagram, it causes the fact finder to be more engaged. Also, effective visual presentation helps the fact finder retain and understand the information. Today, trial lawyers can use visuals from opening statement through closing argument.
What role do visuals and storytelling play in winning a case, and how can lawyers effectively use them in the courtroom? Visuals play a key role in communicating the case to the factfinder. For example, if an expert witness testifies with the aid of visuals the witness’s testimony is more likely to be understood and accepted. Expert witnesses are teachers who teach the factfinders. Examples of expert witness visuals include animations, medical illustrations, and computer slideshows.