Kurt Zaner

Kurt Zaner · Sarah McEahern

Most lawyers are boring and bore jurors into not caring. Or worse, they try too hard to entertain them and make the jurors hate them. We need to find a happy medium – keeping the jurors entertained and caring about your case, without pushing them away by acting over the top. I trained as a stage actor throughout college and moved to LA upon graduation to purse acting before going back to law school. I have found that learning how to emote and act brings clarity, passion, emotion to your presentations.Most jurors exposure to lawyers involves watching lawyers on TV. So we need to give them what they want.

I will teach and model how to pick your moments to use dramatic techniques throughout trial to keep them entertained and trusting you.You will not be "acting" in the courtroom, you will be living your true self and expressing your full range of authentic emotions and maximizing your presentation skills with an eye towards your listener/watcher. This will run the full gamut of trial – from Voir Dire, to Opening, Witnesses direct and cross, and Closing.These techniques include speaking directly to your client, using pauses, incorporating defense counsel into the story theatrically, and story telling with emotion and intention.Its gonna be a hoot.

Kurt Zaner

Kurt will conduct a live voir dire with a premises case with this fact pattern.

Steve Straughen was a well site supervisor at an oil and gas frack site. All of the oil extracted from the ground was being deposited in large frac tanks - rectangular tanks about the size and shape of a mobile home. While investigating strange sounds from the top of the tank, the tank exploded sending Steve 50 feet into the air. Steve survived with severe orthopedic injuries, but ultimately lost his leg. The tanks exploded because they were poorly maintained and delivered to the site with holes in them.

Kurt will Voir Dire on the following issues:

Brutal Honesty

The Justice System

Lawsuit Abuse

Burden of Proof

Money Damages

Money for Pain/Impairment

How much Money is too much

Sympathy

Safety Protocols

Corporate Responsibility

Personal Responsibility

Kurt will meet with students prior to the event by Zoom to review the case and his strategy for writing and practicing his voir dire

Kurt Zaner · Sarah McEahern

Too often we don't have enough time for Voir Dire. When you have only 30 minutes or less, learn how to hit all the big topics (tort reform, burden of proof, money for pain and large damages) while both planting seeds for trial and discovering toxic jurors you need to strike.

Kurt Zaner

Lecture Description Soon to be Updated

Kurt Zaner · Sarah McEahern

1. Building the case
   1. Case selection
   2. Early Actions
      1. Site inspections,
      2. Expert hires,
      3. Case evaluations
   3. Experts
      1. What kind to hire – architects, engineers, human factors, regulators, etc.
      2. When do you hire
      3. Best places to find them
2. Filing the Case
   1. Setting up the claims and parties
   2. Pleading PLA v. Negligence
3. Document Discovery
   1. Documents needed
   2. Discovery Request Strategy
   3. ESI
4. Deposition discovery 30b6 Depos

30b6/PMKs

1. Topics
2. Depo strategy
3. Rules of the Road
4. When to press

Fact witnesses

Order of depositions

Your client’s deposition

5. Trial Preparation

1. MILS
2. Demonstratives v. Chart Paper
3. Focus groups
4. Order of witnesses

6. Jury Selection in Premises Cases

1. Questions you must ask
2. Questions you would like to ask
3. Questions you shouldn’t ask.

7. Opening

1. Educate, inform, and planting seeds
2. Diffusing defenses
3. Introducing clients damages

8. Cross of Defense Witnesses

1. Strategy
2. Drama
3. Depo Clip Integration

9. Closing and Rebuttal

1. Will demonstrate PLA closing with slide deck
2. What to save for rebuttal – briefcase decisions?

Kurt Zaner · Sarah McEahern

Lawyers hate legal writing. And for good reason - its terribly boring. So stop writing like a lawyer and tell a damn story. This CLE will teach how to write in a way that moves the reader to want to rule in your favor. You can use this technique in every brief you write (from discovery disputes to substantive motions) maximizing the chances you will be able to introduce the evidence you need at trial. Without winning the briefing, you may never be able to present the case you want at trial. I learned this after working a federal law clerk for a year right after law school and literally falling asleep at my desk, only to wake up and see the Judge staring at me.

As exemplars, I will use two cases in which a winning brief on spoliation and a winning punitive damage brief led to two eight figure verdicts in CRPS electrocution cases I tried with Sarah McEahern; both had past meds under 300K. I will break down the cases and the briefs and show you how to use the writing techniques I have developed over the years and what they look like in action. I will also show how the evidence I developed in the wining briefs was dramatically introduced at trial. The presentation, like my writing, will entertain you like Maximus in Africa. If you like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, you will be even more entertained.