Q: What are you passionate about outside of work?
Photography, visual arts, learning new things and enjoying an artfully crafted and well-delivered story.
Photography, visual arts, learning new things and enjoying an artfully crafted and well-delivered story.
I have a PhD in Clinical Psychology. My focus has been on understanding human motivation and helping litigators and witnesses communicate effectively with jurors. I went to grad school in Ohio, interned and started my trial consulting career in California, then moved to and opened offices in Texas, Florida, DC and Virginia.
Brainstorming with clients about how to convey complex or technical information and weave it into a cohesive story in a way that will resonate with jurors. Helping top corporate executives and expert witnesses communicate effectively at deposition and trial.
The field was in its infancy when I became a trial consultant. In 1990, when I joined the field full-time, our professional association had only been in existence for eight years. My original doctoral dissertation proposal was for a jury research study. I did my clinical psychology internship at a VA facility in which the… more Q: How did you get into this line of work?
Jurors want to know what a case is about, rather than what it is not about. Don’t spend time telling them or using sarcasm to communicate what it’s not about. Rather, tell jurors affirmatively what the case is about. Help them understand the complexities of the evidence and the motivations of the central parties.
Many people like to think of themselves as being driven by logic and facts. However, we are hardwired to understand the world through stories. The party with the most facts or largest stack of evidence is not always the one that wins. The winning side is typically the one that incorporates the evidence into the… more Q: Tell us something fascinating about human behavior.