In 2012, the American Bar Association published Trying Cases to Win: In One Volume, one of the most highly praised trial advocacy books ever published. Now a student edition is available. The authors have studied transcripts of some of the most famous English and American trial lawyers, and have received input from great American trial lawyers currently trying cases all over the country. They now offer in one volume the lessons, maxims, and suggestions that should enable law students to leave law school with confidence that for the first time they have been exposed to the most sophisticated, understandable, and intellectually appealing trial advocacy teachings.
A behind-the-scenes analysis of media strategies not taught in law school or journalism classes, this collection of entertaining examples and explanations make for ideal reading for everyone fascinated by celebrity legal problems.
This book is a collective work of the Trial Practice Committee of the ABA Section of Litgiation, with the end result being a "how-to" guide to presenting a case at trial.
“Tough Cases stands out as a genuine revelation. . . . Our most distinguished judges should follow the lead of this groundbreaking volume.” —Justin Driver, The Washington Post A rare and illuminating view of how judges decide dramatic legal cases—Law and Order from behind the bench—including the Elián González, Terri Schiavo, and Scooter Libby cases Prosecutors and defense attorneys have it easy—all they have to do is to present the evidence and make arguments. It's the judges who have the heavy lift: they are the ones who have to make the ultimate decisions, many of which have profound consequences on the lives of the people standing in front of them. In Tough Cases, judges from different kinds of courts in different parts of the country write about the case that proved most difficult for them to decide. Some of these cases received international attention: the Elián González case in which Judge Jennifer Bailey had to decide whether to return a seven-year-old boy to his father in Cuba after his mother drowned trying to bring the child to the United States, or the Terri Schiavo case in which Judge George Greer had to decide whether to withdraw life support from a woman in a vegetative state over the wishes of her parents, or the Scooter Libby case about appropriate consequences for revealing the name of a CIA agent. Others are less well-known but equally fascinating: a judge on a Native American court trying to balance U.S. law with tribal law, a young Korean American former defense attorney struggling to adapt to her new responsibilities on the other side of the bench, and the difficult decisions faced by a judge tasked with assessing the mental health of a woman who has killed her own children. Relatively few judges have publicly shared the thought processes behind their decision making. Tough Cases makes for fascinating reading for everyone from armchair attorneys and fans of Law and Order to those actively involved in the legal profession who want insight into the people judging their work.
In Moby-Dick, Ishmael declares, "Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that a whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me." Few readers today know just how much argument Ishmael is waiving aside. In fact, Melville's antihero here takes sides in one of the great controversies of the early nineteenth century--one that ultimately had to be resolved in the courts of New York City. In Trying Leviathan, D. Graham Burnett recovers the strange story of Maurice v. Judd, an 1818 trial that pitted the new sciences of taxonomy against the then-popular--and biblically sanctioned--view that the whale was a fish. The immediate dispute was mundane: whether whale oil was fish oil and therefore subject to state inspection. But the trial fueled a sensational public debate in which nothing less than the order of nature--and how we know it--was at stake. Burnett vividly recreates the trial, during which a parade of experts--pea-coated whalemen, pompous philosophers, Jacobin lawyers--took the witness stand, brandishing books, drawings, and anatomical reports, and telling tall tales from whaling voyages. Falling in the middle of the century between Linnaeus and Darwin, the trial dramatized a revolutionary period that saw radical transformations in the understanding of the natural world. Out went comfortable biblical categories, and in came new sorting methods based on the minutiae of interior anatomy--and louche details about the sexual behaviors of God's creatures. When leviathan breached in New York in 1818, this strange beast churned both the natural and social orders--and not everyone would survive.
1. Introduction; 2. Rule I: Personal Advocacy; 3. Rule II: One Central Theme; 4. Rule II: Make the Case Bigger than its Facts; 5. The Four Laws: Primacy, Recency, Frequency and Vividness; 6. Opening Argument-Not Opening Statement; 7. Problems to Confront in Openings; 8. The Form of the Opening; 9. Final Considerations for Opening; 10. Edward Bennett Williams Opens; 11. Openings in Nonjury Trials; 12. Applications of the Principles to a Case; 13. The Colonial Pipeline Case; 14. Jury Voir Dire; 15. Voir Dire in Two Actual Cases; 16. Conclusion, Appendix A: United States v. Weber-Opening for the Government; Appendix B: United States v. Weber-Opening for the Defense; Index.
The Democrats’ special impeachment counsel on the House Judiciary Committee lays out President Trump’s shocking pattern of betrayals, lies, and high crimes, arguing articles of impeachment to the ultimate judges: the American people. In his behind-the-scenes account of the attempts to bring the president to justice—from filing the very first legal actions against him, through the Mueller report, to the turbulent impeachment and trial, to the president’s ongoing wrongdoing today—Norman Eisen, at the forefront of the battle since the day of Trump’s inauguration, pulls back the curtain on the process. He reveals ten proposed articles of impeachment, not just the two that were publicly tried, all of which he had a hand in drafting. He then guides us through Trump’s lifelong instincts that have dictated his presidency: a cycle of abuse, corruption, and relentless obstruction of the truth. Since taking the oath of office, Donald Trump has been on a spree of high crimes and misdemeanors, using the awesome power of the presidency for his own personal gain, at the expense of the American people. He has inflamed our divisions for his electoral benefit, with flagrant disregard for the Constitution that makes us America. Each step of the way, he has lied incessantly, including to cover up his crimes. And yet he remains in the country’s highest office. Congress, federal and state prosecutors, and courts have worked to hold the president accountable for his myriad offenses—with some surprising successes and devastating failures. Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for Trump’s impeachment and trial, presents the case against Trump anew. Eisen’s gripping narrative and rousing closing argument—at turns revelatory, insightful, and enraging—will inspire our nation of judges. History has proven that this president’s nefarious behavior will continue, no matter the crisis. But, as Eisen’s candid retelling affirms, there is an ultimate constitutional power that transcends the president’s, a power that can and must defeat him if our nation is to survive. The verdict of the American people remains in the balance. It is time for us to act.
Herbert J. Stern, nationally recognized trial lawyer and accomplished teacher of trial techniques, will show you how to win cases. In Trying Cases to Win, Stern elaborates on the techniques he's made famous in his seminars and videos as he commits to print his methods and strategies for trying cases to win. 'He masterfully weaves these guiding principles into a new way of life For The trial lawyer. You would not want this book to get into the hands of your adversary.' --Jeffrey D. Robertson, New York, NY in this volume, Stern takes you through a variety of direct examination techniques that will keep you in control and in charge, driving home his points using transcripts from a broad variety of cases that bring his philosophy to life.
