Firm News

Updates in 2021-2022 Edition of Ken Levinson’s Book Series

November 26, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The 2021 to 2022 Edition of Litigating Major Automobile Injury and Death Cases, written by Levinson and Stefani’s own Ken Levinson along with Tom D’Amore, has some new updates in its latest version.

The two-volume series, which aims to offer legal and scientific insight regarding how best to prepare auto injury cases for the best possible awards, has some updated materials in Chapter 1, “The Importance of Law Firm Marketing.” This chapter covers how best to build your firm brand using internet marketing, organic and local SEO, and Google search result rankings, as well as how to use social media and email marketing to your advantage.

“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,” explained Levinson.

Additionally, Chapter 8–Depositions–is revised to look further into how to boost remote deposition success when so many depositions are now held over Zoom following the pandemic. Specifically, this chapter covers how to allow all participants to see exhibits and witnesses as clearly as possible, how to maximize your video and audio quality, and as how to minimize background or technical difficulty disturbances.

“Our objective is to help attorneys achieve maximum damage awards on behalf of their severely injured clients,” said Levinson. “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.”

The series, published Thomson Reuters, is available here.

Levinson and Stefani Welcomes Newest Associate Attorney, Vanessa A. Gebka

November 24, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Levinson and Stefani is thrilled to announce the firm’s newest associate attorney, Vanessa A. Gebka! Vanessa served as a law clerk for the firm for nearly two years before rising up to her new position, and earned her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law.

“I hit the ground running the day after I was sworn in,” said Gebka of her start as an associate attorney. “I had a lot on my plate, as far as cases go, but I was happy to have the opportunity. Within about a week of being sworn in, I had already appeared in court for the first time as an attorney of record, I was able to file a motion under my name as the attorney, and I was also included in a deposition where I was listed as an attorney for the plaintiffs–so that’s all amazing to me and very exciting.”

At Loyola, Gebka worked on the Chicago Bar Association’s Moot Court Team and as a Student Clinician in Loyola’s Civitas ChildLaw Clinic. During her schooling, it didn’t take long for her to find the area of law that would become her passion.

“I’ve always wanted to work in personal injury,” she explained. “I always felt like it was the right area for me because I’ve always wanted to help people who have been harmed. I found this area of law and have been involved in it since the beginning of my law school career, and I really enjoyed it. Because I was a law clerk here for almost two years, I was able to become really familiar with everyone in the office and with the team here, and they’ve been very supportive.”

Gebka noted that she is incredibly grateful now that she gets to go to bat for the clients she cares about most.

“First of all, I think it’s a privilege and an honor for somebody to trust you in something as serious as a case where they’ve been seriously harmed or injured in something as traumatic as a car crash, even if that injury doesn’t happen to be as significant as other ones–just going through that kind of accident is very traumatic,” she said. “Just trusted as someone who can take care of that for them is an honor. I’m happy and thrilled to step up to the plate and be that person for these clients who are everyday people who have just been involved in something awful and just want someone to be their voice and advocate and help them get back to where they were before–to make them whole again.”

Ken Levinson to Speak at Connectionology Webinar

November 17, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, November 30th, Levinson and Stefani’s own Ken Levinson will be speaking in a free Connectionology webinar named “Over $400M in Verdicts, Thousands of Focus Groups: Lessons Learned.”

Levinson is thrilled to be part of this event as he believes deeply in attorneys sharing their unique methods and insight into helping their clients, because any lawyer should be willing to expand their own perspectives as often as possible.

“These are lessons about what the best lawyers in the country do to win their cases and their mentality in doing so,” explained Levinson. “One takeaway I’ve discovered from all the lawyers I’ve worked with–which includes some of the best in the country–is that they’re always willing to improve and learn. They never feel like they have all the answers, and they’re always looking to better themselves as trial lawyers and learn the best ways to tweak their cases for the better.”

Also speaking at the virtual conference will be Lauren D. Fraser or Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, P.C., and moderating will be Destiny R. Barbosa of Romano Law Group.

“We’ll also discuss some things lawyers make mistakes about,” Levinson continued. “For instance, they might have a great theme, but the wrong case. They’ve got to match, otherwise they’re going to lose. We’re going to talk for an hour or so and try to help lawyers help their clients.”

Any plaintiff and criminal defense attorneys, as well as paralegals, are invited to attend the webinar, which Levinson notes will be beneficial for anyone looking for an outside perspective into the world of focus groups and successful cases.

“We get lost in our own world and our own silos and how we prepare cases,” he said. “We sometimes get lost in the weeds and in the details of our cases. This event is a nice way to step back and see what other lawyers in the country are doing to best help their clients, get more perspective on what some other trial attorneys do to prepare, and how we can use that insight to help our clients.”

The free webinar event will take place between 3:00 P.M. and 4:30 P.M. EST–plaintiff attorneys, criminal defense attorneys, and paralegals can register here.

Ken Levinson Serving as Featured Speaker at Annual IAJ Convention

November 1, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

On Friday, November 5th, Levinson and Stefani Injury Lawyers’ own Ken Levinson will be a featured speaker at the Iowa Association for Justice’s 48th Annual Convention.

This hybrid event allows attendees to join either virtually or in-person, but will be held at the Downtown Des Moines Hilton. Other speakers include the New President of AAJ, Navan Ward of Atlanta, as well as IAJ’s Nick and Courtney Rowley, Lauren Fraser of New Jersey, and Karen Koehler of Seattle.

IAJ prides itself on gathering some of the most prominent speakers from across the state of Iowa and the country itself to discuss innovative litigation solutions and trial advocacy techniques.

Levinson will be sharing his ideas regarding focus group utilization methods and practices for the present day as compared to pre-COVID.

“I love teaching,” Levinson said of his participation in the convention. “I love helping fellow trial lawyers. I’ll be discussing how we’ve pivoted from focus groups and preparing our cases before COVID to how we do so now–by using Zoom more, getting input from other lawyers and participants, and using virtual focus groups along with surveys and other methods.”

Levinson noted that before the coronavirus era, many trial lawyers didn’t think much about other ways to hold focus groups–and they’ve now been forced to think outside the box.

“We used to only do focus groups in person,” he said. “We didn’t really consider any other method to test our cases and help our clients with focus groups. Now, we’ve made changes in the middle of COVID to do focus groups remotely and it’s been interesting; it’s easier, in a lot of ways, to find participants because sometimes they’re more comfortable at home.”

Not only is it easier to find participants, but focus groups can be held with more people than ever before when done virtually.

“We can do some interesting things online and get more people, because by definition, a conference room only holds so many individuals–but you can do a virtual Zoom focus group with around 50 people,” Levinson added. “A conference room size can be limiting. Now, we’ve been able to survey people and have them fill out questionnaires in real time, whereas in person, it’s a lot harder to do that. It’s been really seamless, especially when we need to show exhibits from our computer. We’ve done a lot of focus groups in jurisdictions and states far away, but from the comfort of my office in Chicago.”

For information on attending IAJ’s Annual Convention virtually, click here, or head here for details on joining the in-person event in Des Moines.

Ken Levinson to Speak on Innovative Trial Methods at Belli Society Seminar

October 7, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

This weekend, the Melvin M. Belli Society will be hosting its 73rd annual seminar entitled: In the Spirit of Belli: Cutting-Edge, New and Innovative Ideas for Your Cases and Your Practice, a three-day event in Atlanta for lawyers across the country to meet and immerse themselves in new and innovative methods of effective trial practices. On Sunday, the first full day of the event, Levinson and Stefani’s own Ken Levinson will be speaking.

Levinson’s lecture will focus on the top non-law books that trial lawyers should read–a discussion on the best non-law-focused literature for lawyers to up their game in reaching a jury in a particularly powerful way.

“I read a lot of non-law books–books on decision making, psychology, persuasion, storytelling, and other fields that I think help us as trial lawyers that aren’t necessarily in trial lawyer books,” Levinson explained. “I enjoy sharing what I’ve read so that we can use things like what a filmmaker does, for example, to help our clients. I really get a kick out of teaching other lawyers about things I’ve read or learned from other means.”

Understanding the nuances of effective storytelling is key during trial, Levinson noted.

“You could be in an artificial environment, in a movie theater, and within minutes you could be vying for the hero of the story or angry at the villain, and it’s really interesting how that emotion is played out,” he said. “You know consciously and intellectually that this is a story and a fake environment, but it can still get you emotionally invested. That has always fascinated me because in real life, sometimes lawyers don’t tell a proper story of their clients’ cases. They don’t use storytelling methods to get the jury engaged in a case, and that’s, I think, a wasted opportunity.”

In his talk, Levinson will discuss how to implement key takeaways from these kinds of books into the way a lawyer can powerfully affect a jury in any given case.

“Why not tell a compelling–yet truthful–story about our client’s struggles and what they’ve overcome?” he asked. “Storytelling can give us some techniques to make our clients’ true life stories as emotional and engaging as any fake story that we’re watching in a movie theater.”

The seminar takes place this Sunday and Monday at the Capital City Club Brookhaven in Atlanta.

Ken Teaches Michigan Trial Lawyers About Focus Groups

September 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, September 14, founding partner Ken Levinson was the featured speaker for a Michigan Association for Justice webinar. In his presentation, "Maximizing Your Trucking Cases Using Focus Groups," Ken taught fellow trial lawyers how to best utilize focus groups to most effectively help their clients in trucking cases.

With Ken’s background helping our firm's clients, as well as having conducting hundreds of focus groups for other trial lawyers across the country, he understands how to utilize a variety of methods at every stage of a case. His presentation addressed how to better understand, identify, and highlight the most compelling issues for a trial; recognize the weakest points of a case at the earliest opportunity; find both positive and negative characteristics of clients and witnesses; and test evidence and develop themes before reaching a jury trial. “It is always an honor to be invited to teach fellow trial attorneys – I am happy to be back giving a presentation for the Michigan Association for Justice,” Ken said.