BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE course will summarize some of the findings from social science about persuasion and how they might be put to good use by lawyers. The panel will offer strategies and techniques for synchronizing the various aspects of persuasion into cohesive presentations to put on the best case possible and make each lawyer a better advocate.

Faculty

Description

Despite spending a lot of time trying to persuade others, lawyers are usually not very good at it, partly because they really do not know what persuasion is or how it works. What passes for the principles or rules of persuasion are typically hunches, myths, and half-truths. Jurors, unbeknownst to attorneys, are sitting there asking themselves, “what’s in this for me?” even when the case has nothing to do with them. Looking at the case through those eyes, however, makes it easier to decide how to persuade them.

Social science has identified and verified some principles about how the mind actually works. By understanding the principles of persuasion and learning how to apply them, attorneys--especially trial attorneys--can appeal to that mindset and increase their persuasiveness.

Listen as this preeminent panel reviews some of the key findings about judgment and decision making and then offers strategies and guidance for using the findings of brain science in the practice of law.

Outline

  1. Findings about judgment and decision making
  2. Using the findings of behavioral science in the practice of law

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • Is evidence the most important thing juries and judges take into account when making decisions?
  • What are heuristics?
  • What is the fundamental attribution error?
  • What is defensive attribution?