Advanced Persuasion Skills for Expert Witnesses
Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center, Rosemont, Illinois
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Continuing Education Information
Schedule
Hotel Information
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Executive Summary: Persuasion Skills Workshop for Expert Witnesses teaches experts the fine art of persuading judges and juries. To be effective, an expert witness needs technical competence combined with the ability to persuade the judge, jury or other fact finder. This is an advanced course designed for experienced experts who have already had some formal expert witness training. Persuasion Skills Workshop for Experts will utilize numerous hands on demonstrations to exemplify and reinforce the persuasion skills and techniques taught in the course. Attendees will learn many of the same advanced techniques that successful trial lawyers use to persuade and convince. There will be significant time set aside for questions and answers.
Distinguished Faculty: Nadine Nasser Donovan, Esq., is a former trial lawyer with extensive litigation experience. She is currently of counsel to the Boston-based firm of Martin, Magnuson, McCarthy & Kenney. Her practice area includes the defense of medical professionals in medical malpractice actions and before medical licensing boards. In addition, Ms. Donovan is a Legal Writing Instructor at Boston University School of Law. She previously practiced litigation in New York City, first as a prosecutor in Queens, and then as counsel for the City of New York. Ms. Donovan received her J.D. cum laude from Boston College Law School. She graduated from Fordham University summa cum laude with a B.A. in French Literature.
Registration Information: The $495 tuition includes a continental breakfast, lunch with faculty, a detailed conference manual, and a fast-moving, content rich learning experience. To register by fax please click here. To register online please click here.
Continuing Education Information: Note: If your specialty does not appear below and you desire credits, please contact Karen Cerbarano (781-826-4974 or Karen@seak.com). We can often obtain desired credits upon request, but unfortunately, obtaining some types of credits are not feasible. Please register early, as we can only apply for credits after your registration form has been received and it can take time to get the requested approvals back from the accrediting agencies.
Accident Reconstructionists: The ACTAR Continuing Education Unit has approved this program for 7 CEUs.
Accountants: Earn 8.0 CPE credits in the field of study of Specialized Knowledge and Applications. SEAK, Inc. 108578 is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Web site: www.nasba.org For SEAK, Inc.’s complaint and program cancellation policies please call SEAK, Inc. at 508-457-1111. Prior expert witness training or significant testifying experience are prerequisites for this advanced group-live program. No advanced preparation is required.
Appraisers: The American Society of Appraisers will accept 6.75 continuing education hours for this program.
Arborists: SEAK has applied for continuing education hours through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).
Attorneys: Credit varies by state. Continuing legal education credits for attorneys will only be applied for if requested in writing when sending in the registration form for the conference. Please contact Karen Cerbarano (781-261-9972, Karen@seak.com) with any questions.
Engineers: SEAK, Inc. has been approved as an Authorized Provider by the International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET), 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102. SEAK, Inc. is authorized by IACET to offer .7 CEUs for this program. PARTIAL CREDIT IS NOT ALLOWED. Prior training as an expert witness or significant testifying experience is a prerequisite for this advanced group-live program. No advanced preparation is required. This is an interactive program where learner-instructor dialog is encouraged. No technological skills or equipment is required.
Life Care Planners: The Commission on Health Care Certification (CHCC) has given the course 6.5 CEUs. Course number 1079.
Physicians: SEAK, Inc. is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. SEAK, Inc. designates this educational activity for a maximum of 6.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists: 6.5 CE Credits. SEAK, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. SEAK, Inc. maintains responsibility for this program and its content. To receive credit each psychologist must attend the entire program, sign in before the program, sign out after the program and return a completed evaluation form. Partial credit is not permitted. Prior expert witness training or significant testifying experience are prerequisites for this advanced group-live program.
SCHEDULE
Registration & Continental Breakfast 8:00-8:30
8:30–9:30 Executive Summary of Persuasion Techniques for Expert Witnesses: An opening mock trial demonstration followed by a an explanation of the goals of the course and the interactive teaching methods the course will employ, i.e. a combination of didactic lectures, questions and answers, exercises, and mock trial demonstrations. The instructor will preview and explain the numerous persuasion skills techniques that will be taught and practiced in the course. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Describe techniques to present more persuasive expert testimony.
9:30–10:30 Preparation: An expert’s ability to persuade is to a very large degree predicated on how and how much the expert prepares. In this segment, the instructor will explain the critical importance of proper preparation as it relates to persuasion, provide numerous examples and review a detailed check list of how experts should prepare, both by themselves and with retaining counsel. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Explain how to best prepare to deliver expert testimony.
10:30–10:45 Break and Networking Opportunity
10:45–11:15 How to Best Put Forth Your Qualifications: Experts must be able to put forth their own qualifications in such a way that balances getting their qualifications in front of the jury against the risk of overwhelming and boring the jury and appearing pompous. In this segment, the instructor will explain how to strike the correct balance, which qualifications to highlight, and how to show the jury that your qualifications are particularly relevant to the issues in the case at hand. The instructor will demonstrate a non-traditional approach to presenting qualifications and will further demonstrate with attendees how they can best put forth their qualifications. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: List techniques for how to best put forth your qualifications.
11:15–11:30 Commenting on the Opposing Expert and His/Her Opinion: Experts in a case are almost always faced with a colleague working for other parties proferring differing opinions. In this segment the instructor will explain and demonstrate the optimum ways for commenting on and discrediting the opposing expert’s opinion while avoiding disrespect for the expert himself and avoid appearing to be an advocate. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Describe techniques for how to comment on an opposing expert’s report without appearing to be an advocate.
11:30–12:00 Developing a Harmonious Interaction with Retaining Counsel: The most effective direct examinations are characterized by a smooth and balanced interaction between the expert and retaining counsel. In this segment the instructor will explain and demonstrate how to develop an optimum interaction such that the expert’s testimony appears spontaneous and not rehearsed, is succinct and substantive, avoids long narratives, where the expert is not lead and where the expert is able to read retaining counsel for signals as to when to elaborate and when to move on. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Discuss how to maintain a smooth and balanced interaction between the expert and retaining counsel.
12:00–1:00 Lunch (Provided with Faculty)
1:00–2:00 Creating and Using Powerful, Memorable Language and Analogies: A cornerstone of persuasiveness is the ability to use powerful and memorable language. Powerful language allows the expert to be understood and memorable language allows the expert’s testimony to be easily recalled by the jury and easily referred to by retaining counsel during summation. A crucial tool in using powerful, memorable language is creating and using analogies to help explain your technical expert testimony. In this segment the instructor will explain the techniques for developing powerful, memorable language and analogies and will work with attendees through exercises so that they can develop new, powerful, memorable language and analogies that they can use in future cases. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: List techniques for developing powerful memorable language and analogies.
2:00–3:00 Optimizing Your “Teaching” Skills: The most persuasive experts utilize the communication and persuasion techniques employed by superb teachers. In this segment the instructor will explain and exemplify the ten “teaching” techniques that experts can use to make themselves more persuasive. The instructor will also conduct exercises and demonstrations with the attendees allowing them to further develop and improve their own teaching skills. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: List teaching methods that can be used to improve the persuasiveness of your expert testimony.
3:00–3:15 Break and Networking Opportunity
3:15–3:30 Reading and Bonding with the Jury: The most persuasive experts are able to tweak their testimony to the particular jury in question, build bonds with the jury and even react midstream to the jurors’ reaction to their expert testimony. In this segment the instructor will explain how to read, build bonds with and better persuade the jury. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Describe ways to read, build bonds with and better persuade the jury.
3:30–4:00 Dealing with Problem Areas and Weaknesses: No expert’s opinions, qualifications and credibility are 100% bulletproof. Weaknesses and problem areas will always exist to a greater or lesser extent. The time to first (and most effectively) deal with and defuse such problem areas is during direct examination, not cross. In this segment the instructor will explain the importance of dealing with such problems head on during direct examination and how to best do so. The techniques for dealing with problems will also be demonstrated with volunteer attendees. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Describe strategies to deal with a defuse problem areas during direct examination.
4:00–4:30 The Biggest Mistakes Experts Make that Can Turn Off Judge and Jury: Effective experts must avoid verbal and non-verbal conduct that is likely to diminish their persuasiveness. In this segment the instructor will explain and exemplify the biggest mistakes experts make which can turn off a jury including a review of 25 indicators of deceptiveness. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: Describe the biggest mistakes experts make that can turn off judge and jury.
4:30–4:45 Takeaways, Conclusion and Evaluation: The instructor will answer any and all outstanding questions. The instructor and attendees will then work together to develop a “bullet-point” list of the most important concepts, techniques and action steps learned in this workshop. Questions and Answers. Learning Objective: List the most important concepts, techniques and action steps learned in the program.
HOTEL INFORMATION
The site hotel is the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center in the village of Rosemont, IL. This full service “fly in fly out” property is easily accessible to Chicago’s O’Hare airport and provides complimentary 24 hour shuttle service to and from O’Hare Airport and is a modern, well-equipped quiet hotel. All of the guest rooms are brand new and come equipped with additional amenities such as refrigerator, in-room safe, cordless telephone, 32 inch High Def. LCD TV, double paned windows and Full size sofa-sleepers in all King bedded rooms. The Crowne Plaza Chicago is located directly across the street from Rosemont Convention Center. The compact Village of Rosemont is a very popular convention destination that features over 5,000 hotel rooms, numerous restaurants including Morton’s, Nick’s Fish Market, The Capital Grille, and McCormick and Schmick’s, the brand new state of the art 101,000 square foot Muvico Theaters Rosemont 18, the Rosemont Theater, the Museum of Hummels and other attractions. The Chicago Loop and Magnificent Mile are accessible via taxi or you can walk to the subway from the Crowne Plaza. SEAK has secured a special group rate of $104/night (single and double). Rooms are limited and this rate expires on June 1, 2010. To make your reservations, please call 888-233-9527 and refer to the SEAK Group rate.