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In the midst of a three-day trial - defending a client against a case brought by New York State Police - I learned a valuable lesson. Namely: that visualization beats 'work.' I had one critical witness to cross-examine, to wit, the arresting NYSP Trooper, scheduled to testify the following morning. I rewrote my notes, reread the police reports, rewatched every minute of the body-camera footage. Still, I was anxious. The outcome of the examination felt uncertain, unpredictable

I was in Steuben County Court today. My client faced a 12-count indictment including Assault - a felony accusation carrying up to 25 years imprisonment upon conviction. The judge dismissed it. Just like another Steuben County judge dismissed a 67-count Enterprise Corruption indictment earlier this week. In both cases, my clients' statutory rights were violated, hence the dismissals. Both cases personally prosecuted by the Steuben County District Attorney himself. We

You can succeed and earn millions. Houses and lands. Collectibles and gold. But do you actually own it? Your accounts can be frozen. Your houses, condemned. Your art works, stolen. Your reputation slandered by perjury. Friends and family? Snatched away by Death itself. You own one thing, and one thing only. Your Soul. Be true to it. It's all you'll ever have. ... Yours, Tom

1. Articulation: Practice tongue twisters. And learn them by heart to hit the memory at the same time. Once you master one, give yourself an impediment . Put your thumb into your mouth, sideways, or a pen that you balance with your lips. You will notice that you need to breath more deeply, and that your articulation improves. 2. Feedback: Record yourself on your phone. Each of us has unique antics. Lip smacking, filler words shoulder twitching, or that one gestur

And how to deliver it. The Ancients - Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian - said that forensic speeches should be partitioned as follows. 1) Introduction ( Prooemium ) 2) Narration ( Narratio ) 3) Proof ( Confirmatio/Refutatio ) 4) Conclusion ( Peroration ) This is a timeless framework that still works even though modern trial procedures have evolved significantly. Why doubt Cicero, or Quintilian, both of whom have tried numerous

Where are today's polymaths? Aristotle, Newton, &etc? Why is Mozart's chamber music better than his orchestral works? Why are the 100m budget movies never great? Why do you have 27 tabs open in your browser but cannot focus on one thing? ... Limitation fosters genius.

Stepping into a bustling courthouse, judges and juries in session, you will invariably see counsel glued to a lectern. Notepads full of notes. Eye contact? Minimal. Whether he speaks to a witness or a juror, his notes are the apple of his eye. They are the external hard drive to his memory. Yet we all know how powerful it is to speak directly to our audience, hold eye-contact as is appropriate, and then move on to the next listener for a like interval. It’s the eye that is th

“ A trial that hath been used time out of mind in this nation .” Sir William Blackstone. You heard that the UK [1] government intends to curtail the right to be tried by jury for many offences. They stated that they will introduce ‘swift’ courts with a judge and magistrates, but no jury, for all offences carrying up to 3 years (the jury-right in the UK attaches generally upon a 6-month and above-sentencing exposure, similar to here in the U.S.) We should restrict the ancie

Many of you are pondering whether to pursue a career as a teacher or as a lawyer. Your temperament and personal constitution are fit for both, and you like the idea of being a member of either of those two professions. You have the drive in you to educate people, perhaps children, and have influence over their development, or correct mistakes your teachers made. You see yourself in a classroom, children looking up to you. You see the wheels turning in their brains, the lights