AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition 2018

March 13, 2018 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Supporting the next generation of great trial lawyers is extremely important to us. Last weekend, our firm proudly ran the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition Chicago Regional. There were over 200 law school teams nationwide from 125 law schools and 16 teams compete in the Chicago regional.

Here are more details about STAC:

One of AAJ’s goals is to inspire excellence in trial advocacy through training and education for both law students and practicing attorneys. One way AAJ accomplishes this goal is by sponsoring the national Student Trial Advocacy Competition, an annual mock trial competition. This is an exceptional opportunity for law students to develop and practice their trial advocacy skills before distinguished members of the bar and bench.

The competition is open to law schools nationwide. Each law school may enter one or two teams, each team consisting of four law students. Teams registering after the competition is full will be put on a waiting list. A school’s selection method of its trial team is left to the school to determine. However, for a student to be eligible, he or she must be enrolled for a J.D. degree and be a law student member of AAJ. Students who graduate in December 2016 are eligible to participate only if the competition counts toward their credits for graduation and they will not be admitted to practice prior to March 2017.

Teams are assigned to one of fourteen regional competitions. Only the top team from each region will advance to the National Final Competition.

AAJ’s mock trial cases are always civil cases and tend to deal with products liability, personal injury, or medical malpractice/negligence issues. Teams will be judged on their skills in case preparation, opening statements, use of facts, the examination of lay and expert witnesses, and closing arguments. There will be no written exercise.

Because the purpose of this competition is to give law students the opportunity to develop their trial skills, the actual merits of the plaintiff’s case and the defendant’s case presented are irrelevant to this purpose. The competition is not to be decided on the merits of the plaintiff ’s or defendant’s case.

The winning team from each regional competition will advance to the National Final Competition. The national winning team will receive complimentary airfare, hotel accommodations, and registration for the AAJ Annual Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, July 22 – 25, 2017.

We’d like to thank everyone involved. We’re particularly grateful to those of you who took time out of your busy lives to volunteer over the weekend. Your generosity is greatly appreciated by, not only our firm, but also the students who will become the lawyers of the future.

Thank you!

Litigating Major Automobile Injury and Death Cases 2018 Edition

February 1, 2018 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Litigating Major Automobile Injury and Death Cases, 2017-2018 ed. (AAJ Press)

One of the many obligations we take on when we become trial lawyers is to assist our fellow lawyers in providing the best possible representation they can for their clients. In striving to meet that obligation, we dedicate some of our time to providing educational materials for lawyers.

We are proud to announce the publication of the 2017-2018 edition of Litigating Major Automobile Injury and Death Cases, co-authored by Ken Levinson, Thomas D’Amore, Karen Koehler, and Michael D. Freeman. The book is published by AAJ Press/Thomson Reuters.

In this year’s updated version, we have added several new chapters on the benefits of Focus Groups—a highly successful method for gaining insight into the minds of potential jurors.

We have conducted hundreds of focus groups both for our firm, as well as, firms across the country, many of which have led successful trial verdicts.

In fact, I recently oversaw focus groups for trials that led to verdicts of over $250 million.

This series is designed to provide plaintiff attorneys with clear guidance on representing major automobile injury and death cases, and strategies for winning large damage awards with the least expenditure of effort.

Our objective is to help attorneys achieve maximum damage awards on behalf of their severely injured clients. The series features written discovery, depositions, medical and other expert witness testimony, and aspects of automobile jury trials, as well as the necessary forms needed to handle a case from beginning to end.

In Volume 1, Law and Forms, we aim to assist plaintiff attorneys in developing strong cases by incorporating litigation strategies that undermine expected defense strategies.

In Volume 2, Forensic Science, we have compiled a science/medical reference with hard-to-find data on injury and injury mechanism topics, to prove causation and damages for a variety of crash types and crash injuries, including epidemiology, injury risk by crash type, injury pattern analysis, biomechanics, and more.

Whether you’re a veteran plaintiff attorney, or a newly minted lawyer, we hope you find something new in this edition.

Law Practice Tip: Client Feedback Surveys

January 25, 2018 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Customer Experience Concept, Happy Businessman holding digital Tablet with a checked box on Excellent Smiley Face Rating for a Satisfaction Survey

Listening to clients is absolutely essential to delivering remarkable service. One way to get feedback from clients is conducting a client feedback survey. Here are a few ideas for implementing a client feedback survey at your firm.

For the less-than-tech-savvy folks, you can always conduct surveys with good old-fashioned paper and pen. Have a stack of surveys readily available for anyone at the office to hand to a client at the right time. While paper surveys tend to be the easiest to implement, they also require clients’ physical presence at your firm. Depending on your practice, this may prove inconvenient for clients. Of course, you could always send the survey as a .PDF attached to an email. Still, the client will have to complete the survey and return it to you, whether by scanning or mailing. Not ideal.

With a small step toward the future, you can implement some form of online client feedback survey. One of the easiest and most affordable options is Google Forms. If you’re looking for something a little more robust, check out the following:

Next, you have to consider what you want to ask clients. While you might be inclined to add several questions to a client feedback form, less tends to be more here. After all, you don’t want to annoy your clients. In fact, you may even consider limiting your feedback to a single question. Something like a Net Promoter Score (NPS). While not perfect, an NPS score survey is short and can provide some great insight about how clients perceive your service. An NPS question might be as simple as something like this:

On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our practice to a family member or friend?

You might also add an optional paragraph text field prompting clients to leave more open-ended feedback, should they want. With a short survey like this, you’re likely to get more responses than from a longer questionnaire. Further, you can always follow-up based on client feedback to ask more questions later.

Okay, now for the advanced part. For the more savvy types, you can implement a client feedback system that incorporates online review platforms. Put simply, the system should identify a client’s satisfaction level and then prompt happy clients to post a testimonial and notify you about unhappy clients to decide how to respond to them.

While you can roll your own system, here are a few software options that can handle the heavy-lifting for you:

No matter how you implement a client satisfaction process, keep in mind that none of this works without providing excellent client service. Design a service-first practice. Use client feedback to learn how to improve. Implement a client satisfaction process to motivate more happy clients to sing your praises online.

In our experience, this has been one of the most effective ways to both improve our service to clients, as well as, get the word out.

If you’ve had experience implementing client feedback systems that you’re willing to share, we’d love to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to add to the comments below.

Ten Non-Lawyer Books for Lawyers

October 30, 2017 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Last week I had a wonderful time visiting Bar Harbor, Maine, with a very special group of attorneys. While there, one of my favorite activities was hearing about some of the great books that others are reading. So, I figured I’d share some of my favorites here.

Book Cover The Paradox of Choice The Paradox of Choice-Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
In preparing for my list, this book came to mind; nevertheless, I still picked more than 10 books. We have difficulty making decisions when we have too many choices. Schwartz helps give us insights we can use in our practices, like selecting the number of defendants or theories to use at a trial.

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

I’ve always been fascinated by how emotionally invested we become during a movie. This book on screenwriting can help us bring our client’s real life story to life so that the jury can truly learn about what our clients have had to endure.

Cover of Metaphors We Live By Metaphors We live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
We all think in metaphors or pictures – such as she has “a mountain to climb” he “broke my heart” and “you’re running out of time.” These mental images also impact our behavior. This book can help us trigger the most effective metaphor.

Cover of Made to Stick Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Whether it’s our trial theme or our law firm’s marketing efforts, we want to be memorable. The Heaths help show us how to make things “stick.”

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Influence: The Science of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Attorneys, especially trial lawyers, need to be persuasive. Dr. Cialdini identifies the science behind what is persuasive.

Thinking, Fast and Slow Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Nobel Prize winner explains how our minds process information. Brilliant explanations of fast, intuitive thought versus slower, deliberative process. Also learn about our cognitive biases and how to improve our thinking.

Cover of Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses “No, But” Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton
Second City members – Using improv to create a better team. Examples of wonderful “games” we can use to build better working relationships and creativity at our law firms.

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
Use the technique employed by airline pilots and many others to make sure that we avoid failure. Advice on checklists – make sure they are short and simple. Also, get feedback on those who use the checklists in helping improve them.

The Power of Habit Cover Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
How do we create good habits and break bad ones? Learn the habit forming process; cue triggers, routine occurs, reward, and reenforce.

Great by Choice Cover Good to Great & Great by Choice by Jim Collins
These two books look at the the most successful companies to learn what makes them stand out. Great advice we can use in our firms. Such as the misperception that success or failure occur suddenly. Typically, success and momentum occurs over years.

Never Split the Difference Cover Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

Voss, a former hostage negotiator, offers advice on negotiation. A key takeaway is that it’s crucial to strive to make sure you are being fair, even when you must reject an offer.

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Explore the differences between liberals and conservatives and get a deeper awareness of how our moral values differ. For instance, liberals and conservatives look at fairness far differently and a trial lawyer should be away of the best way to frame a case based on the worldview of the jurors.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds

Learn how to make better presentations with concepts borrowed from the world of Zen.

Cover of Stumbling on Happiness Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Lawyers have too high a rate of depression and stress. Learn the science of joy and the many misperceptions that distort the quest for happiness.

Remembering Judge Bob LeChien

September 1, 2017 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of St. Clair County Circuit Judge Bob LeChien, who passed away early yesterday after complications from surgery.

I got to know Judge LeChien over the course of a year. He presided over a jury trial that I handled nearly three years ago, involving my client, a nine-year-old girl, who was sexually abused by a day care owner. My client’s parents and their extended family were devastated. The case was among the more delicate I’ve handled in my legal career.

Given the nature of the situation, it was comforting to see Judge LeChien in action. He made every reasonable effort to make sure the process was as painless as possible. As a result, my clients were willing to provide uncomfortable but important testimony. Ultimately, it made the difference when it came time for the jury verdict.

This morning, as I stumbled upon LeChien’s obituary, I was reminded of his spirit and professionalism. He knew that at the heart of the case was a family suffering from trauma, betrayal, and even guilt. He didn’t show favoritism, but he understood what was at stake. Not all judges have that kind of talent.

Ken goes back to law school

August 24, 2017 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

One of the things I appreciate about my job is coaching future, aspiring attorneys as they begin their legal education. I’ve been doing this for many years, and once again I was asked to participate as a guest speaker during DePaul University’s welcome week for first-year law students. It was everything a practicing attorney could hope for in a group of law candidates—smart, insightful, ambitious.

For the non-attorneys out there, welcome week is perhaps one of the most memorable moments of law school. It typically begins with a brief introduction from the Dean of Students and ends with the most important of tasks: an oath of duty, recited just before breaking off into small group sessions in which a practicing attorney (me) leads a conversation about ethics and professionalism. Perhaps some do it differently but this has been my experience over the last few years, and it makes me appreciate the early beginnings of my own legal education.

That’s a brief way of saying that welcome week is an opportunity for young attorneys to get a taste of the next three years. Ethics, of course, is a big part of that. Part of my task was to introduce two hypothetical scenarios, each presented with several ethical dilemmas and gray areas that were not so easily dismissible. For example, one scenario dealt with an established attorney who encouraged a young legal associate to engage in unethical practices because, to paraphrase, “You’re young. You have your whole career ahead of you, so it doesn’t matter if you get caught now.” A second scenario dealt with a group of attorneys who liked to use hardball tactics to intimidate and frustrate the opposing counsel by sending documents at 11:59 pm on a Sunday. That led to a discussion about what might be considered technically legal but not necessarily professional.

The reasons for doing these exercises might seem self-explanatory, but they are beneficial on multiple levels. They are designed to give students a glimpse into their coursework, but also to stir debate about the nature of the profession, primarily how important it is to preserve your reputation, whether you’re a first-year attorney or one with decades of legal experience. The legal world is small; at some point, news gets around to other attorneys and judges. I went as far as to provide examples of similar situations that I’ve had to deal with in my legal career, including a hardened defense attorney who would not agree to an extension for one of my clients, who had a massive stroke just days earlier. The judge granted the request, and I doubt he’s forgotten how shallow and unprofessional it was for the defense to insist that my request be denied.

My goal for these types of mentorship opportunities is simple. I want to be helpful, and I want others to feel as though they learned something new. At the same time, I feel like I learn something new too.