News — Michael Leizerman

Reviewed by Anna Burr Originally published in the Oct/Nov 2018 issue of Trial Talk, the bi-monthly magazine of the Colorado State Trial Lawyer's Association. Of all the trial strategy resources available to attorneys, connecting with the jury may be the most important one.  We enter courtrooms as perhaps the least credible of everyone present, and as quickly as possible, we must establish a rapport with the six skeptics in the jury box.  Ideally, we accomplish this feat while also crushing defense experts, villainizing defendants, appeasing the judge, and highlighting our worthy clients.  It’s a lot.  In the new book, The Zen Lawyer: Winning...

Trial Guides is proud to announce a new trucking seminar November 2-3, 2018 in Scottsdale Arizona.

This live Continuing Legal Education event features three of the leading trucking lawyers in the United States; Michael Leizerman, Joe Fried and Morgan Adams.

Trial Guides is pleased to announce a Zen Lawyer & Advocacy CLE Workshop. In this event, Michael Leizerman, Jay Rinsen Weik, and Joshua Karton.  

The three will teach concepts from Leizerman and Weik's book Zen Lawyer: Winning with Mindfulness.  The three will then work with attendees to put the concepts into practice.  

By Michael Leizerman After identifying the strongest defense arguments in a case and slashing away issues that are not necessary to win the case, I look for the Core Truth. This is the issue that I stress in opening and return to in each direct and cross examination, along with closing argument. I look to reduce the issues in the plaintiff’s case to as few as possible to reduce the jury’s and judge’s resistance to persuasion. The more you try to persuade, the more resistance you will encounter. This is so counter-intuitive that it can be difficult for lawyers to understand. You...

Michael Leizerman on the “Three Cores”

Michael Leizerman: There are two questions that predict whether someone will do well at trial. And the first is I ask myself, “Am I present at trial? Am I aware what’s going on? Am I mindful?” And the second question is “am I emotionally connected?” I think when it comes to trial there are two reasons why lawyers don’t get bigger verdicts. The first is they don’t ask for enough money and the second is when they do ask for money, they don’t believe it. So, in this book, it goes through the three cores that are important for everybody to develop. The first is the conscious quarter that we find in the gut. That’s where we’re mindful of what we do, mindful of others...