Book Review Persuasion Science for Trial Lawyers

• Publication year: 2023
• Citation: Vol. 36 No. 2 Pg. 30
• Pages: 30

Book Review Persuasion Science for Trial Lawyers Vol. 36 No. 2. Pg. 30 Utah Bar Journal April, 2023

March, 2023

Persuasion Science for Trial Lawyers

by John P. Blumberg

Reviewed by Donald J. Winder

You see, Rudy, in law school they don't teach you what you need to know. It's all books and theories and these lofty notions of the practice of law as a profession, like between gentlemen, you know. It's an honorable calling, governed by pages of written ethics.

- The Rainmaker, by John Grisham

In law school, it's the Socratic method, Latin words, legalese, the case method, and much more. All designed to allow lawyers to talk to other lawyers and present their cases to judges. But what about those other important people with whom we must relate, like clients, witnesses, and jurors? Before law school, we were just average what's important and what isn't. What does the client want to do? To tell her story. Treat your client the way you would a friend who wants to tell you something important. So let your clients, and for that matter witnesses, tell their stories. Then, after you give them advice, ask them what questions they have. John explains, people who had no problem communicating. After law school, our spouses and children had difficulty understanding us. When did it become important to say "prior" instead of "before," and "subsequent" instead of "after"? Many lay persons confuse the meaning of these words, but lawyers seem determined to make the simple complicated. (And what's a "lay person" anyway? A non-lawyer?) Learning how to communicate is one of the reasons why every lawyer must read John Blumberg's book, Persuasion Science for Trial Lawyers.

I have...