Wake Up Call for Lawyers Going to Trial – In Response to Paul Manafort Trial

By Alan Blumenfeld
Founding Director
ACT of Communication

Over the past 42 years of working with lawyers, we’ve always focused on behavior. That is, what lawyers call demeanor and so much more. Your attitude, tone, ability to connect with all of the people in the room. This goes way past simple “eye contact”. Connection is about your passion for what you are saying and your honest ability to advocate, convey that passion…hand it over to your listeners. Judge or Jury.

The recent trial of Paul Manafort is a perfect example of a situation where the lawyers were: well prepared, experienced, professional and had found the story of their case. The prosecutors seemed to “boil down” the huge volume of evidence to a distilled story; the defense seemed to be playing jazz where it’s all about what you don’t say. They insisted the prosecutors had not made their case and so they offered very little from their point of view.

The outcome? Guilty on 8 of the 18 charges. A clear win for the prosecution. Except listen to one of the jurors, Paula Duncan, quoted in the Washington Post Aug 23:

Although she said it was “pretty easy to connect the dots” after prosecutors’ presentation, she described the special counsel team as seeming “a little bored” during the proceedings.

“I saw them napping during the trial,” Duncan said, citing in particular prosecutors Brandon Van Grack and Greg Andres. “So it kind of sent a message of ‘We’re bored with this,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Well, if you’re bored, then why are we here?’

And of the defense she said:

“They gave a very easygoing atmosphere to the whole thing, they objected to very little, and appeared agreeable throughout it all.”

From our point of view, having been teaching lawyers and their witnesses how to maximize their effectiveness in and out of the courtroom for over four decades, this was a kind of disaster.

As an attorney in the courtroom, you are always ON. There is no camera to cut away from you; no editor to show only the good moments when you are attentive.

Regardless of how you think you are coming across to the panel, perception is everything. Clearly this trial stands as a lesson in sending more than receiving. Being more involved in self rather than receiving the cues, non-verbal responses, from the jurors. Even if the jurors are giving you blank faces, you need to be constantly reminding yourself that they are more important than you are in the two-way street of communication. Your efforts will be received and rewarded.

You ARE demonstrative evidence. The jurors are hearing this and following this story, or not, for the first time. It doesn’t matter how many times you have gone over the story. Or how familiar YOU are with the material. You have to create a live, present time experience for the people in the room. And you have to do it ALL THE TIME.

Yes, it’s exhausting. Being in trial is like performing in live theater. That is why our background as performers in theater, film and TV (www.actofcommunication.com) brought us to this field of working with lawyers in the first place. It is thought that an actor performing in a 2 hour play expends as much adrenaline as someone in a minor car crash. Suit up and strap in, you are not allowed to look bored. EVER.

It’s not enough to be perfect on paper. Once you are in the courtroom, you are a performer. And not in the pejorative sense so many people have of performers. Not the ego-driven, applause seeking, face-making overactor. No. A performer in the modern sense. In the sense of the best of contemporary performance. Honesty, sincerity, the stripping away of artifice and the vulnerability to reveal a true human being. And a human being in pursuit of convincing, advocating, seeking justice. And in the courtroom, your job as a trial lawyer is to be that ALL THE TIME.

So, you must expand your skills beyond writing and an absolute knowledge of the law, the rules of evidence and procedure. You must learn to connect your mind and heart and gut with your voice and body to become a true communicator. A warrior willing to do whatever it takes.

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