In his introduction to Persuasive Communication: Twenty-Five Years of Teaching Lawyers, Eric Oliver writes:

"We all know what's important. It's just that we sometimes need reminders. So, what are those reminders all about? That nobody escapes the moment of truth. For almost every case you accept, no matter how well you prepare it, no matter how much time, energy and resources you commit to developing the most impressive case you can, there comes that moment when you have to stand up in front of one – or several – real, live human beings. You have to deliver your client's story in a way that a mediator, lawyer, adjuster, judge or those jurors find both memorable and compelling. Every day, at that moment, lawyers get to see the vast gulf between theory and practice when it comes to persuading living, breathing people."

 

Experts as diverse as Harvard Professor of Law Arthur Miller to wordsmith and opinion maker Frank Luntz agree that lawyers, as a group, are ineffectual (if not some of the worst) communicators. But as Eric attests, it's not necessarily their fault – but that of the poor schooling and practice those attorneys have received.

 

Today, as trial lawyers put supreme effort into developing, selecting, discovering and preparing cases, it is a real shame that in so many instances, those efforts are all for naught because of a poor and often inadequate delivery. It's a problem easily averted through teaching.

 

Since 1984, Eric has been training small groups of trial attorneys across the country in some of the most effective skills for improving communication and influence available anywhere. If you've participated in one of his sessions, you've seen how the capabilities and techniques he has honed and enhanced, in programs such as The Facts Can't Speak for Themselves and The Mental Edge for Legal Communication, help you to bridge the gap between reason and perception, to balance the verbal with the visual, and even to use persuasive influence with your decision makers that is both conscious and "other than conscious," all with tremendous results.

 

In the fall of 2010, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) invited Eric to adapt his tried-and-true two-day Mental Edge program to the exacting standards of its trial colleges, incorporating the program's hallmark: small group, hands-on practice sessions in the afternoon to try out each skill demonstrated that morning. That first program, now aptly titled The Persuasion Edge for Legal Communication, was well-received and was presented again by AAJ on November 11-12, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

 

Interest in The Persuasion Edge continues to grow, and is now being offered in cities across the country. Because of the small-group setting, the seminar attendance is limited to 24 practicing attorneys. Each afternoon, the group participants will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned about in the morning session to selected parts of a current case, with supervision, in front of their fellow trainees. It’s practical experience with instant application since you’ll be working with one of your current cases.

 

Here's how The Persuasion Edge works:
Each participant will be asked to submit, in advance, a short narrative describing a particular case he or she wishes to work with during the weekend program. While the case work helps focus the training team's efforts and the group's real-world concerns, the skills presented apply to almost every aspect of legal work that relies on effective persuasion with any decision maker – professional or juror – for success. Since the majority of civil cases settle without ever going to trial, the tools you will need must be equally as persuasive for judges and adjusters as they are for witnesses and jurors.

 

Day One
We all have experienced forming an immediate, strong connection with another person by chance, though usually in personal rather than professional settings. With direction and practice, you can learn to replicate that experience at will with any legal decision maker you face. Imagine taking your listeners from a position of reticence or even suspicion to a position of acknowledgment or empathy in a ridiculously short time.

 

But a connection, however strong, is only a bridge. You still have to deliver the goods. And in trial law, the goods are a case story, one which needs to be sequenced correctly in order for it to have the greatest effect during presentation and delivery. To sequence a case story well, you must determine which anchors and frames will invite each decision maker to build their own most memorable and compelling version of your client's story.

 

During day one, you will also:

• Discover the actual value of rapport
• Confirm the concrete link between mirroring and rapport
• Learn how the technique is done and when and where it is best utilized
• Determine your case story's most persuasive sequence
• Arrange the key frames of your story to support and increase the effectiveness of that sequence

 

Day Two
What's the most basic bias affecting every decision maker who is building a private version of your case story? And, more important, what would stop you from tapping into it if you could?

 

Each of us builds a story in our heads from three basic blocks, called sensory representations: sights and mental images; sounds and words; and feelings and sensations. What most trial lawyers haven't learned is how to see and hear how our leanings toward any particular sense system are advertised, and how available decision makers of all stripes leave themselves open to the influence of persuasion.

 

If you have learned how to detect a person's preferred system(s), and you have learned how to apply this tool to delivering an uncluttered visual message, you can double, and even triple, the impact your case story's strongest points has on both professionals and non-professionals alike.

 

Finally, the weaker points in your case story, if delivered with both full rapport and well-packaged anchors and frames, can actually work for you by being turned into strengths.

 

During day two, you will also:

• Discover how to read a person's preferred sense system (including your own) to acknowledge how each decision maker "makes sense" of the world
• Learn how to develop and use succinct visual deliveries to better manage decision makers' mental images
• Learn how anchors, frames and themes work together
• Learn how to apply visual anchors and framing to your case story's strong points
• Learn how to reframe your weakest points into your strongest points during delivery

 

It's often said that two heads are better than one. And there's proof that some of the best ideas come from a group setting – one that involves an open exchange of ideas. Through this working, hands-on training, you'll learn a practical approach to real world communication. If you need to interact with and favorably influence decision makers in presentation, negotiations, depositions, or any aspect of legal communication, then you definitely want to have The Persuasion Edge.

 

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