In addition to being an author, dynamic speaker and a consultant in demand to trial lawyers nationwide, Eric Oliver has been the chief contributor, editor and publisher of News From the Mental Edge since its first issue was printed in 1981. The insightful and informative newsletter explores and emphasizes brain-friendly communication by lawyers, who prefer to balance the influence of the visual, verbal and nonverbal messages they can't help producing. By adopting these approaches through every step of a case, from discovery to any form of resolution, Eric's attorney clients have produced consistent and remarkable successes for their clients; the accomplishments are featured prominently in each issue. Several readers say their older issues stay in their briefcases for years, repeatedly used as an invaluable resource from deposition to mediation to trial.

The free publication, published three times each year, is available in both .pdf form and in hard copy. Click here to have News From the Mental Edge delivered directly to your email inbox.

Summer 2011 Issue Highlights:

Neurolaw or Frankenlaw?

The Thought Police Have Arrived

By Larry Dossey, MD

Reprinted with the author’s permission

“This technology . . . opens up for the first time the possibility of punishing people for their thoughts rather than their actions.”

—Henry T. Greely, bioethicist, Stanford Law School

Wonder Woman, the fabulous comic book heroine, wields a formidable weapon called the Lasso of Truth. This magical lariat makes it impossible for anyone caught in it to lie. American psychologist William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman in 1941. He hit a nerve; Wonder Woman has been the most popular superheroine in comic books in the 70 years since her inception. Marston believed in the potential of comic books to be an educational and inspirational force for young people.

He championed the causes of women in his day, and his creation demonstrates the virtues he believed women embodied. Marston was swimming upstream; the superhero genre in the early 1940s was dominated by males such as Superman and Batman. Marston wanted to create a new kind of superhero, a woman who was empowered by intelligence, strength, justice, and caring. He wanted Wonder Woman to be a role model for young women. Marston believed that women were more honest and reliable than men, and that they should carry these attributes into the world. He wanted girls to see Wonder Woman’s free spirit, strength, and intelligence as something to aspire to.

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Brain-Friendly Case Stories

Part Two

By Eric Oliver

"Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism."

-C.S. Lewis

FIRST THINGS FIRST

After the August, 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon, an apocryphal story began making the media rounds. It seems one of the major outlets had run a simple poll, asking respondents who they had voted for in the previous presidential race: McGovern or Nixon. According to the results, Nixon had lost to “President” McGovern by a landslide! Whether it is true or not, the story rings of verisimilitude. What the pollsters didn’t measure, and which would have been much more revealing, is just how many of those people now claiming to have voted against the man who actually did win by a landslide really believed they had voted for the real loser. Polygraphs wouldn’t have been much help, as they can only measure physiological reactions to what someone thinks is true or not. Whether people to take sides against an unpopular “loser,” or they had had second thoughts about endorsing Nixon’s administration, if they truly regretted their vote, or, really now thought they had voted for the other guy, clearly something had changed the story in their heads about which side they wanted to be – or believed they really were – on. Much like a trial lawyer looking at seven military veterans in a focus group or venire panel during jury selection, knowing the odds are good that at least one voted Democratic in the last election, he can’t tell which one just by looking. And, as the pollsters found out, you can’t always tell by just asking, either.

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FROM JUDGE S TO JURORS

By Amy Pardieck, Perceptual Litigation, Bloomington, Indiana

Reprinted with the author’s permission

A trial lawyer’s ability to persuade jurors begins by establishing a positive relationship with the judge. Although jurors have no actual knowledge about the judge’s opinions of you and your case, they quickly develop a sense of a judge’s attitude about the lawyers and each party’s case. It is as if jurors have “extra-sensory perception” in this regard. They are not aware of the impact a judge’s non-verbal behavior has on them, but when a judge thinks either positively or negatively about you or your case, jurors pick up on that and often follow suit.

Judges are the ultimate authority in jurors’ eyes. Jurors watch judges closely for both large and small clues indicating their opinion about specific issues, the parties, and the attorneys. These clues include how many objections are sustained and overruled for each side; the judge’s rapport with the attorneys; the tone of the judge’s voice when addressing each lawyer, party and witness; the judge’s attentiveness to one side over the other; the length of time the judge looks at or speaks with one attorney over the other; the judge’s willingness to accommodate each side with regard to breaks, admission of exhibits, use of audio visual equipment; and any other matter requiring the judge’s intervention.

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Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Live Communication I learned from

Konstantin Stanislavski:

Common Mistakes and Best Practices

By Katherine James

Reprint by permission of Author

I am a lucky woman. I have been an actor since I was five years old. I have had the great fortune of working with and studying under some of the finest disciples and practitioners of the great master of modern realistic acting: Konstantin Stanislavski. Studying and practicing acting involves learning how to make oneself believable, memorable and persuasive to audience and fellow actor alike.

Twenty years into learning, honing and practicing the art and craft of acting I discovered that the wonderful lessons I had learned and was learning in the theater were actually the cornerstones of “live communication”. Further I realized that this “theater as live communication” lesson not only applied to real life but it applied to yet another discipline- the practice of advising lawyers and their witnesses as a trial consultant. And I’ve been applying, studying, learning, failing and succeeding at these lessons in life, onstage, in meeting rooms and as a courtroom advisor ever since.

In this article, I break down three of the great acting lessons I learned from my great teachers and directors into their live communication components. I hope that the deconstruction of each acting principle into its definition followed by its application to the theatre, real life, the meeting room and the courtroom will be useful to both trial consultants and attorneys. I also suggest exercises to perform and signposts to consider when improving your own communication as well as the communication of your clients with each of the great acting lessons.

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