Defending People

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  • 2015.64: Functional Mindfulness II

    In medieval Europe litigants would arm themselves and beat the hell out of each other to resolve what might now be considered legal issues. The loser was obviously in the wrong. Some litigants could select champions to do their fighting for them. I doubt that this happened often ((Most lawyers are exceedingly trial-averse; how much […]

    July 9, 2015
  • Fifteen Books for Becoming a Better Criminal Defense Trial Lawyer

    At Illinois and Missouri lawyer Evan Schaeffer’s Trial Practice Tips Weblog, Evan has a link to an Amazon list of 16 Books to Read if You Want to Become a Better Trial Lawyer by Dallas Government lawyer Shane Read. Shane’s list includes Gerry Spence’s How to Argue and Win Every Time, Posner’s How Judges Think, […]

    June 25, 2009
  • Convergence

    In Zen, if asked, “What is the Buddha?” one should raise a clenched fist. If asked, “What is the ultimate meaning of the Buddhist Law?” before the words have died away, one should respond, “A single branch of the flowering plum” or “The cypress in the garden.”It is not a matter of selecting an answer […]

    March 9, 2009
  • Improv, Trial, and Politics

    From a 2007 interview with improvisational comedy teacher Keith Johnstone: GM: And you won’t be nervous. KJ: No. Why should I be nervous? So I can screw up? If you can’t screw up, you have to be nervous. I can’t win them all. Usually it goes fine. But the one thing I mustn’t do is […]

    October 17, 2008
  • About Thinking

    When lawyers start talking about The Art of War, I sometimes suggest that they should first read and grok — or at least understand — Lao Tse. My thinking is that without recognizing the philosophical pilings beneath The Art of War a lawyer can reach only a superficial understanding of Sun Tzu’s precepts. There are […]

    September 2, 2008
  • Chapter 2, The Tao of Criminal Defense Trial Lawyering

    In a comment to a recent post about Mao and Sun Tzu, Oklahoma criminal-defense lawyer Glen Graham wrote: While the “Art of War” provides some theories, the Tao, has other theories, and still, there are a multitude of others. I’m not sure Glen is quite right. It is true that we can learn from Sun […]

    October 15, 2007
  • More Advice to the Young Criminal Defense Lawyer — Part 2. Books and Movies

    A very short list of must-read books for the budding criminal-defense lawyer (just those that pop into my head right now) “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee) “Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae” (Steven Pressfield) “Wilkes: His Life and Crimes” (Winston Schoonover [Charles Sevilla]) “The First Rumpole Omnibus (Rumpole)” (John […]

    July 26, 2007
  • Other Trial Technologies

    In case you couldn’t already tell . . . I’m fascinated by the things other fields have to teach us (criminal trial lawyers) about what we do. For example, theatre: Keith Johnstone’s books, Impro for Storytellers and Improvisation and the Theatre contain lots of nuggets of wisdom that my brain translates into ways of thinking […]

    March 24, 2007
  • Mindfulness

    In Keith Johnstone’s Impro for Storytellers he relates: “A Japanese swordsman wrote that if you fight someone who has no plan, you’ll be thinking, I’ll do such and such! as your severed head bounces down the temple steps!” (Then Johnstone adds, “(Well, he didn’t put it exactly like that.)”) Johnstone is talking about how being […]

    March 23, 2007

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