Firm News

Ken was honored at the recent American Association for Justice Annual Convention in Las Vegas. He was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for 2021. The certificate is given to members who have made contributions through membership, education, or fundraising to sustain and strengthen the organization. AAJ currently has approximately 20,000 members across the United States.

Ken continues to show his leadership and service amongst trial lawyers, and though he does it because it’s the right thing to do, the recognition is welcome. Throughout a difficult 2020, Ken continued teaching and coordinating virtual education programs for trial attorneys.

“I truly enjoy the opportunities I have to help make all trial lawyers better advocates for their clients. I do it because we all have an obligation to raise the bar of the profession, but the recognition is a humbling honor,” said Ken.

On April 12th, Levinson and Stefani’s own Ken Levinson will be giving a presentation at the American Association for Justice’s new program, New Lawyers Boot Camp.

AAJ has collaborated with its New Lawyers Division for this six-part series taking place each Monday, from 2 to 4 p.m., today until May 10th. Today’s focus will be ‘Oral and Written Advocacy Skills,’ April 12th’s will ‘Pre-trial Essentials,’ April 19th’s will be ‘Making Yourself Essential to Your Firm,’ April 26th’s will be ‘The Economics of a Case,’ May 3rd’s will be ‘Trial Teamwork–How to Create an Effective Trial Team,’ and May 10th’s will be ‘Playing Offense.’

The six-part boot camp, which Ken helped develop, aims to help new lawyers better understand the best ways to grow within their firms and become as successful and profitable as possible. It expects to do so by providing these up-and-coming attorneys with insight into how to best develop extraordinary pre-trial skills and how to boost their abilities to work efficiently with a pre-trial team.

“I am always honored to help teach fellow trial lawyers and am even more excited to help new attorneys,” Levinson said of his participation in this series.

Levinson’s presentation will take place on April 12th at 2:00 p.m. and will focus on the best methods for conducting a successful client interview and what the essential aspects taken away from such an interview should be.

Levinson will be working with Gordon and Partners’ Jennifer Lipinski on discussion topics such as: proper protocol when first meeting a client, how to be a top-notch questioner and investigator, and the best ways to find landmines during the interview.

Other discussions taking place on April 12th will be regarding witness preparation, led by Miller Weisbrod’s Luke Metzler; expert research and background checks for the plaintiff and the defense, led by Herman Herman & Katz’ Stephen Herman; and a sponsored presentation to close out the day.

AAJ hopes program participants will gain important insight regarding how to create personal marketing plans, persuade judges with pre-trial motions, and keep cases moving forward effectively. 

To attend the six-part boot camp, AAJ members can register here.

In recent firm news, Ken Levinson has joined as a guest on the new podcast, Consult the Negotiator, hosted by attorney Marc Siegel.

“I believe that the power to negotiate effectively, thoughtfully, and strategically is the single most important and distinguishing characteristic of great attorneys and other professionals,” said Siegel. “I launched the Consult the Negotiator Podcast because I was troubled by the fact that this critical skill set inexplicably gets short shrift in both professional education and practice.”

Siegel aims to bring on guest attorneys to discuss leveraging negotiation skills in regards to trademark matters, business discussions, and employment disputes, and will work to provide practical strategies and tips for listeners to become the strongest negotiators possible.

“Lawyers spend every day negotiating to meet and exceed our clients’ goals and expectations,” Siegel explained. “Yet, some lawyers don’t think about the negotiation process itself or how to negotiate differently and more effectively.”

Siegel notes that throughout his years as a practicing attorney, he has taught thousands of lawyers and law students how to best negotiate. He currently provides training in areas like “testing a final offer,” “advocating in mediation,” “getting past impasse,” and “how to deal with a bully.”

Siegel believes that negotiation is a skill and a tool in its own right that can be “honed and refined to improve your overall success in practice.” Levinson’s episode of the podcast is available now on Spotify.

To check out Siegel’s negotiation training, you can visit his website here.

The firm’s managing partner, Jay Stefani, spoke on yesterday’s American Association for Justice‘s webinar, “The Next Step in Law Firm Tech.” Jay’s presentation, “Investing & Implementing the Right Law Firm Tech,” discussed various technologies personal injury firms should be using to improve efficiency and productivity, while better helping clients in today’s law firm environment.

“The past twelve months have required a lot of adaptations for lawyers. We’ve been fortunate in that our use of technology helped ease the pivot to working remotely, but there are always new and updated resources out there,” Jay noted.

Also presenting on the webinar were Christopher Nace of Paulson & Nace (“Setting Up a Zoom Room in Your Office”); and Jamie Goldstein of Arias Sanguinetti Wang Torrijos and Carla Aikens of Carla D. Aikens, P.C. (“Keys to Success in a Virtual Setting No Matter the Platform”). The webinar was moderated by Stephanie Luzzi of The Luzzi Law Firm.