Dirk Vandever

“ONLY BY FOCUSING ON THE LITTLE THINGS DO AMAZING THINGS EMERGE”

All too often the pithy saying which captures the essence of your trial is an afterthought . . . sometimes even after the trial itself. Lawyers excel at preparation so they are able to stack fact upon fact upon fact leaving jurors bleary-eyed at the mass of information coming at them without a lens to focus on what is most meaningful. Every client deserves a lawyer who, as a part of their pre-trial preparation, actually sits down and spends time coming up with these sayings. In a case where small changes in life seem to relegate a case to minimal value perhaps the lens is, “Enjoy the little things in life because one day you will look back and realize they were the big things” (Kurt Vonnegut). In yet another trial where the defendant creates terrific written policies which were not followed the lens would be, “Actions speak louder than words.”

At the workshop, the participants should bring their upcoming trials to develop these critically important bite-sized “memory hooks” that the juror will use in sorting out and simplifying what we all too often try to complicate.