Remote Advocacy in a Nutshell
Author:
McCormack, Tracy Walters
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2021
19 chapters
have results for trial advocacy
Chapter 8 Hearings, Bench Trials and Appellate Arguments 29 results (showing 5 best matches)
- This chapter is more the culmination of the preceding chapters than its own chapter. Motion practice requires assembling all your advocacy skills to present a quick recitation of your case, your requested relief and convince a judge to grant that relief. Putting on witnesses in either hearings or bench trials requires a thorough understanding of that plus all the advocacy of appearing before a sophisticated audience.
- Judges need good advocacy too
- Many appellate courts seized the opportunity to transition to remote arguments. Oral arguments seem particularly conducive to videoconference platforms. The appellate bar of lawyers and judges seem to have adapted well to the new reality. Like bench trials and appearing before sophisticated audiences, this section is a culmination of the chapters which precede it. While tempting to see appellate argument as separate from the other proceedings, it too is the integration of all remote advocacy rolled into a final proceeding. Like all the
- Most likely you too have conducted at least a remote hearing if not a bench trial. Appellate courts began hearing oral arguments quickly. Even the U.S. Supreme Court heard remote oral arguments. While jury trials get most of the attention, often the day-to-day work of justice happens quietly between lawyers and judges. This chapter is placed towards the end because much of what has come before is a preface to this section. For many lawyers, hearings are a staple of their practice. In that sense, it might have made sense to put this chapter first. But hearings only occur in context. Hearings are part of overall strategy for the case. That case may end in a jury trial, arbitration, bench trial, or other proceeding. We needed to have the larger context of the book to be prepared for the more common practice of hearings.
- Can my client wait for an uncertain or continued hearing/trial?
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Chapter 6 Jury Trials 93 results (showing 5 best matches)
- As this pandemic has forced us to face the looming reality of remote proceedings, it is the prospect of remote jury trials that have faced the fiercest opposition. It is understandable. Nowhere are the stakes so high as in a jury trial. Developing solid jury trial skills is the work of a career. It is not unreasonable to think that we lose some of what we perceive to be our natural advantages in in-person jury trials if we resort to remote advocacy.
- design of this trial will work for your client and you. Be sure you have asked and understand the details about how your “courtroom” will be set. The setting and procedures will almost certainly change the dynamics of your advocacy.
- We know the pressure of a trying a jury trial. Unquestionably, there is added pressure to trying a remote jury trial. Like most uncertainties and fears, the anticipation is worse than the event. Once you get into a remote jury trial, it becomes normal. You focus on your case, your jurors, and your witnesses just like you would in any trial. The more you become an effective remote trial lawyer, the less you worry about the technology. Try to do remote hearings, mediations, or pleas and depositions whenever you can. Operate as much of your regular practice as you can over your platform. If possible, try to use the platform the court will use. Platforms vary and you will want to feel comfortable in the one you will use for your jury trial. Planning and preparing for a remote jury trial will require you to enlist your technology and practice colleagues, family members, or anyone you can find to watch you and provide constructive advice. Certainly, one advantage to remote advocacy is...
- Despite all the efforts to put on an in-person trial, it may fall apart. Consider the use and number of alternate jurors. Have a clear plan under what circumstances, an alternate will replace a seated juror. Do not forget to include them in your advocacy as if they are members of the jury in your presentation. Try to reach agreements about jury size should you lose a juror once deliberations have begun and they can no longer be replaced. Know what your options are should someone test positive or be in contact with someone who tests positive during trial or during deliberations. What if a juror does not pass the daily health screening? What if this occurs to a lawyer, member of the legal team, your client, or a witness? What if it is you? You must know the contingency plans so that you can advise your client accordingly. Your client must be advised of the risk that the preparation, expense, disclosing trial strategy, and displaying key evidence may all end in a mistrial or... ...trial...
- One option may be to employ hybrid trials for a while. You may get an in-person trial, but all the players may not be willing or able to come in-person. Hybrid trials will raise a host of their own technology and advocacy solutions. Rather than just recording witness testimony—through depositions or actual recordings of a direct and cross examination—hybrid trials would present some or all of those witnesses through videoconference platforms. Obviously, this
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Chapter 7 Arbitration, Mediation and Other Proceedings 20 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The reality is that many lawyers have assumed that “advocacy” is only for juries. Arbitrators, administrative law judges, sophisticated hearing officers do not need those “theatrics”. Agreed, they do not. This misplaced notion of effective advocacy has led to little or no advocacy even when needed. Sophisticated factfinders need a different type of advocacy, but advocacy, nonetheless. Combatting fatigue, shorter attention spans, and voluminous exhibits requires advocacy.
- While most of the attention has been focused on remote proceedings in the courts, much of the day-to-day work of the legal system happens elsewhere. For many lawyers, their first remote proceeding may be in one of these forums. Each of these forums carries its default “cues” as well. Participants visualize “normal” and expect their virtual proceeding to be the same. Of course, “normal” is not the same for everyone, hence the value of the pre-hearing conference. Just as with trials, the outcomes of the proceedings remain the same, but the process to arrive at those results will be different. No surprise, your advocacy should be different as well. Because the participants will have more control over the design of these proceedings, the opportunities for innovation and beneficial change are greatest here. The early adopters of remote advocacy may have a distinct advantage both now and in transforming the return to in-person advocacy. If there is any truth to the saying “to the victors...
- Instead of doing the same old thing, just through a screen, lawyers could use this as an opportunity to re-shape proceedings. Consider using features of summary jury trials to distill presentations of witnesses to make for shorter proceedings. Increased use of pre-filed directs or briefing might allow the factfinder to send a list of questions they would like to see answered during the proceeding. Presenting subject matter experts back-to-back, rather than in separate cases in chief would make it easier for the factfinder to compare their testimony. The benefits of the platform technology allow for increased creativity in advocacy.
- reference, consult the reference list of arbitration best practices guides contained in the appendix. Once you have worked through the pre-trial checklist, you can focus on your advocacy. (See pretrial chapter.)
- Tip—Practice and test your softer mediation advocacy skills.
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Introduction 6 results (showing 5 best matches)
- For advocates, remote advocacy requires a return to the basics. The more we test and watch, the best advocates are those who remember the fundamentals of clear, efficient advocacy. The book could have been 900 pages long, if I had addressed every advocacy skill or technique. But there are abundant other resources on the basics of advocacy. You may want to get out your favorite advocacy guide or consult the resource guide in the appendix if you need suggestions.
- We tried to make this book very practical. We based it on the comments and concerns of practicing lawyers. We ran troubleshooting sessions with lawyers to test problems and solutions. We worked with judges and lawyers on early remote trials. We try to balance the reluctance of lawyers with the needs of our courts and our clients to move forward. Our goal is to inspire you to try remote advocacy at its highest potential—and to give you the resources to succeed.
- This guide is for anyone engaged in the new task of remote advocacy. It will be useful for those conducting judicial and alternative dispute resolutions proceedings: judges, hearing officers, arbitrators, mediators, and those representing clients or themselves in any proceeding. It will be useful for law students learning the distinct skills of remote advocacy. We designed this book to be useful for cases from traffic tickets and misdemeanors to intellectual property cases and appellate arguments. Obviously, the resources available to litigants will vary. The book is designed to help anyone present an effective case whether they are by themselves or have the benefit of professional services. We believe that the remote platform technology actually helps to level the playing field and decrease resource disparities in many instances. In the chapter on demonstratives, Sherrie graciously offers numerous tips and secrets to help anyone create visuals previously only available to paying...
- The word “pre-trial” is used generically to cover what leads up to any proceeding. So we used the short-hand “pre-trial” to stand-in for “pre-mediation,” “pre-arbitration,” “pre-bench trial,” “pre-deposition” etc. That is why the “Pre-Trial” chapter contains tips and considerations for any proceeding. There will be more in-depth discussions of special consideration specific to different types of proceedings in each section.
- ...“platform” are also used expansively. Remote advocacy covers the broad range of spaces in which we meet with and advocate for our clients. “Proceeding” is meant to address all those spaces. Similarly, the word “platform” is used expansively. While there are a few dominant platforms being used for legal proceedings right now, the technology is ever improving and expanding—and what are the most popular platforms today may not be what lawyers and judges are using down the road. References to features of platforms are generic. We try to describe features for you to consider while recognizing that the names of certain common features vary from platform to platform. With the help of Sherrie Wirth, owner of The Exhibit Company in Austin, we have put together a technical section with in-depth advice and instruction on using Zoom and other platforms. Upgrades and changes are being made every day. We fully expect that more legal-specific settings and platforms will enter the market in...
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Chapter 4 Pretrial/Pre-Proceeding Conference 28 results (showing 5 best matches)
- In addition to creativity and imagination, pre-trial conferences will require agreement. Perhaps more cooperation and agreement than we normally have with our opponents. Managing contingencies, working off a single shared platform and handling technology ourselves may be a relatively new experience. Figuring out where to place witnesses on screens is not an adversarial process. The advocacy begins r we conclude the pre-trial. Sure, we can shut down our opponent by saying no to demonstratives, or PowerPoint but we close off our own advocacy as well. We end up with a boring proceeding that cannot compete with the distractions enticing our audience. If we want to keep our true competitive options open, we need to agree to an expansive process that allows both sides to present their evidence in a way that can be understood and evaluated by our audience.
- What may have been a routine event now will be anything but. We will use the title pre-trial, but it can mean pre-anything. You will need to engage in some process, whether you are having a hearing, arbitration, mediation, deposition, or any other proceeding. Of course, the more involved the proceeding, the more detailed the conference. One thing we have learned is that everything in a remote proceeding must be planned. Without a doubt, it is harder to accommodate spontaneity in remote proceedings. For those lawyers who liked to show up at a trial or deposition with a briefcase full of documents and decide off the cuff whether to use them or not—it is much harder to do in remote advocacy. There is almost a correlation between your technology skills and your spontaneity. Yes, you can be more spontaneous, but it requires a higher degree of technical proficiency. Sadly, that may not have been the correlation for which you were hoping.
- Whether jury selection occurs for an in-person trial, hybrid or fully remote, it will be different. Courts, clerks, and lawyers have had to be creative in empaneling jurors for trials. Many courts are conducting jury selection remotely even for in-person trials. As courts have become more comfortable with this process, many expect to continue it for the foreseeable future. Not only does it reduce traffic through courthouses or alternative locations, but juror response to summons is better.
- Jury selection is workable using any of these scenarios, it just requires more advance planning and agreement. Once you have your jury empaneled, you still need consider some critical remaining issues for an in-person trial. (See jury trial chapter.)
- If using jurors or outside people, agree to have extras so that you easily dismiss those with connection issues rather than waiting to solve the problem. Agree on how you will handle someone who gets “dropped” during the proceeding and rejoins. One of the reasons for using demonstratives is to allow people to quickly catch up and to have redundant means of communication. It the same reason for using exhibit binders. Agree now on whether you will repeat evidence, keep going if it just a few minutes, or allow the decisionmaker to ask if the person has questions. It is up to you how you handle it but agreeing ahead of time will alleviate what can be a heated debate. When we are caught up in the advocacy of the moment, it is hard to step back and make these decisions.
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Chapter 5 Presenting and Preparing Witnesses and Depositions 20 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Not surprisingly witness examination requires more preparation in remote advocacy. Whether it is planning a direct or anticipating an impeachment it will require more effort. Unless we are in a summary jury trial, we communicate through witnesses. Our proceedings succeed or fail based on how our witnesses communicate through a screen.
- When you think about it, impeachment is never spontaneous. We plan for it—we hope for it, we live for it. Every cross examiner is hoping to be able to impeach the witness. We learn in advocacy to cross reference each of our cross-examination questions with the source to impeach the witness if they deviate. We take that preparation and use it in remote advocacy. First, if possible, try to scan every source referenced in your cross, so that it is digitally available. Take a screen shot or photograph of any anticipated materials if you do not have time to scan it. If you are in a jury trial, you need some way of allowing the witness or counsel to see the impeaching material without displaying it to the jurors first. If is it the court, arbitrators, or hearing officer, it may not matter. Have those digital materials available on your computer, labelled so they are easy to find. Now you are ready.
- Cross examination is a critical component of any proceeding. It should not be curtailed or minimized in a remote proceeding. Just like in any proceeding, you want the audience to sit up and be excited when it is time for your cross. Nothing about remote advocacy changes that. In fact, it can be more powerful than ever. An effective cross with good leading questions, done by a lawyer bringing fresh energy to the proceeding can be a powerful tool. If your opponent is not using visuals and you are, the contrast alone draws attention. If your opponent has made the mistake of treating remote advocacy as a limitation instead of an invitation, capitalize on it. Never forego your advocacy because of small perceived technical hurdles.
- In many trials our experts are critical witnesses. They are frequently the only witness we get to choose. We count on them to bring persuasive value to our case. Remote advocacy expands the universe of available experts. You are no longer bound by geography and travel for your expert. If your expert is willing to accommodate time differences, anyone in the world can be available to you. You are not limited to a pre-recorded deposition. Your expert can testify live, responsive to the case as it is now. Your expert can sit in on the testimony of critical witnesses just by logging on. Experts can lend valuable insight in rural counties too far to travel to before.
- Handling witnesses in remote advocacy is of course different. From preparing our own witnesses to cross examining others, the connection is different. Like all other remote skills, it is different not impossible. Yes, our first thoughts focus on the face-to-face in our offices, conference rooms, and courtrooms. Like all aspects of remote proceedings, there will be some advantages and some disadvantages.
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Chapter 1 A New Reality 29 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Neither will remote depositions be novel experiences. Remote mediations and arbitrations are well underway. Courts are already conducting remote bench and jury trials as well as oral arguments. There will be few spaces in which we advocate for our clients that will not have adapted to some remote advocacy element. Many courts have already expressed a preference for certain remote proceedings over traditional ones. Even after society can safely re-enter courthouses, remote advocacy will
- At its most complex, remote advocacy may require us to use dual monitor computers, lighting and sound systems, all while examining a witness with exhibits, impeaching, or even conducting jury selection. Remote advocacy requires being succinct to avoid our audience becoming distracted, losing focus or interest. Adding a technological component to our regular routine requires practice. We need to practice enough that we can concentrate on our advocacy rather than being distracted by and nervous about our technology.
- We will also want to practice until we are less worried about the tech and more about the content. There will always be some anxiety about our advocacy being dependent on technology. Our goal is to reach a level of comfort where we can maintain quality advocacy even when we experience minor technological glitches—and even major ones.
- Many of us practice in courthouses with old electrical outlets that sometimes fail, or air conditioning that fails on the hottest days. We have in-person trials where the ELMO does not work, or we cannot play the recorded deposition when we wanted. We survive witnesses that are delayed in arriving at the courthouse or must be presented out of our preferred order. In-person trials have no guaranties of perfect conditions either. Yes, those events are upsetting, they require us to be flexible and adjust our plans. We know that good advocates anticipate, have back-ups, and keep going. We do not call for the end of in-person trials or juries because every courtroom condition is not perfect. Remote advocacy will be challenging. There will be technological problems—some of which will almost certainly be major. You might lose the connection and have to log back on. You may lose the video of a witness. The more you practice, the more comfortable you become. The more you practice, the more...
- Learning how best to utilize videoconferencing platforms to appear in remote proceedings is just another technology-based skill set—one that requires a different set of advocacy skills and considerations. This book is designed to help you acquire and master those new skills.
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Chapter 3 Preparation and Planning Ahead 26 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Obviously, the pre-trial or pre-hearing/proceeding conference will take on new meaning as parties negotiate and reach agreement about each of these issues. Exhibits are a critical persuasive tool—beyond their evidentiary value for the record. In some ways, remote proceedings make it cheaper and easier than ever to maximize the impact of exhibits. Demonstrative and illustrative exhibits should be an essential feature of remote advocacy. With pre-planning there is no exhibit that cannot be meaningfully shared with factfinders or jurors.
- Take advantage of the fact that digitizing evidence and displaying it was reserved for “big” cases. It seemed too expensive to bring in projectors and screens. It was expensive to hire a tech person to run trial presentation software. With remote advocacy, the biggest expenses have been removed. All you need is your computer or even a tablet. If we can move our cursor and hold the shift button at the same time, we can create many of these effects ourselves. Sharing our screen is easy. But if it is more than you want to handle, it is also easier than ever to have someone help. No one has to come to the courthouse, find parking and wait with you. If you need help office staff, a colleague, or friend can log on and help you pull up documents on your screen. Embracing the low and easy tech that is available can transform your advocacy. It can allow you to be on equal footing with your opponent. You now can provide your audience—judge, jurors, arbitrators etc.—with direct visual evidence...
- It is not that we need a camera crew in our living room. We are not a show and should not become one. But we must appreciate how frustrated and bored our audience will become if we do nothing to help them understand our message. This is not only a remote advocacy problem; this is an all-advocacy problem. Whether our audience is a sophisticated decisionmaker, jurors, or opposing clients at a mediation, if they do not pay attention to us, we cannot begin to persuade them. The law has always given us the power to force people to appear—but we must persuade them ourselves. Jurors must serve. The judge, arbitrator, or mediator is present. You can make your audience sit in the chair, but you cannot make them pay attention to you. In-person advocacy has never meant that minds did not wander or that distractions were not present. We can easily confuse presence with attention. Remote proceedings may magnify the distraction problem, but also provide solutions. The technology in remote...
- Remote proceedings work best with a level of cooperation and civility between counsel. For some lawyers, this is no change at all in their practice, but for others, this is a dramatic adjustment. We can still zealously represent our client while being cooperative. Zealous does not mean taking unfair advantage of the mediums to coach our witnesses when testifying, mute our opponents, or unnecessarily interrupt them or distract the audience. Zealous advocacy is an adversarial engagement on the merits of the case. Nothing about remote advocacy alters your ability to argue or present your best case on the merits.
- There are some more subtle reasons why we find ourselves thinking the worst of our opponents, their clients, witnesses and jurors. False attribution—assuming the worst intentions—occurs more frequently when we are not face-to-face. Think about communications like writing or emails. Without any contact or reference with the writer, we can easily misinterpret the message. When we cannot see a person, we wonder what they are doing and so assume they are doing the worst. Remote advocacy can lend itself to both problems. We fall prey to our own fear/resistance cycle and heighten our distrust of the new imaginary opponent, witness, juror etc. Even when we can see part of them through our “box” (screen), we can only wonder what is happening outside the “box”. ...coaching a witness or any other violation, we already have rules to deal with these behaviors. Remote advocacy does not invite us to abandon our ethical rules or our principles. Bad behavior existed before, and it will sadly...
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Outline 24 results (showing 5 best matches)
Index 46 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter 11 Remote Advocacy for Law Students and New Lawyers 14 results (showing 5 best matches)
- “Learning Advocacy Remotely” vs. “Learning Remote Advocacy”
- What you likely learned last spring was traditional “in-person” advocacy delivered through a remote platform. That is different than learning “remote advocacy” as a separate skill set. Now you may be learning true remote advocacy. If your law school or law practice remains remote, every time you learn and practice an advocacy skill set, you practice it over a remote platform. Every such opportunity increases your comfort with remote platforms. The difference is one of both attitude and skill. It is the difference between embracing and utilizing the advantages remote platforms offer rather than resisting and hence limiting their effectiveness.
- One of the great surprises of the pandemic is the number of free webinars. There are webinars on virtually every segment of practice. There are whole YouTube channels devoted to advocacy. If you need a basic book on advocacy, there are plenty in the Nutshell series. Resources abound. Court has never been easier to watch. Most courts are streaming proceedings or have a designated channel. Watch as much as you can. You will see what it is effective and what is not. Watch how proceedings in your practice area are being handled remotely. You might not always find the best example of what to do, but you may learn what not to do. If you are less familiar with in-person proceedings, then watch those. When courthouses do re-open, go, sit in the back, and watch hearings and trials. It is never a waste of time to watch a variety of proceedings and lawyers work. Watch the jurors, or judge, study their reactions. A good advocate never stops learning by observing others.
- the ability to get trial, hearing, deposition, mediation and other experience now. You can gain a proficiency in remote advocacy that many experienced lawyers may avoid. At the moment, almost everyone is a new lawyer in this new remote environment. More experienced lawyers do not know anything more about conducting a remote hearing or trial than you do—and they may bumble while you can shine. The gap between their experience and yours is the smallest it will ever be. So, maximize your advantages by preparing more than they will. Volunteer to help on cases in your office. Look for cases you can handle on your own. Ask to sit-in on remote proceedings. Offer solutions to technical and other apparent obstacles. Volunteer to run a practice proceeding or troubleshooting session. Say “yes” to work that will benefit your learning.
- If you are in law school or recently graduated, the COVID-19 pandemic may have significantly altered the way you learned or will learn advocacy. On the plus side of this experience, you have a unique opportunity to be ahead of the curve. Your technical familiarity and skills can propel you further now than just a year ago. Because of the rapid and forced use of remote platforms, technology has now become as essential a legal skill as doing research. More experienced lawyers are searching for anyone who can help them navigate the new remote technology. You can be that (re)source. If you are still in law school, learn remote advocacy and participate in the online advocacy competitions to advance your skills for the post-graduation world. Now is the moment to get as much as practice as you can advocating over remote platforms. If you are a new lawyer, use remote platforms as often as you can. Volunteer to work on every remote opportunity your office has to offer.
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Chapter 2 Dispelling Myths and Building Rapport 21 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Myth 1—Remote Advocacy Is the Same as Live Advocacy,
- The real question will remain the same, though: which makes you most persuasive to your audience? How well do you connect to them? Be careful that your choice does not compromise the integrity of your advocacy. Sitting may be best for that particular proceeding, but not sitting on your couch, unless that is the only choice you have. Do not convey informality unconsciously to yourself and consciously to those watching you. It may feel strange to stand and deliver an argument in your home—but you were never appearing in court from your home. Other proceedings may be appropriate for sitting, like mediations, arbitrations, depositions, and questioning witnesses in some jurisdictions. In a full trial, you may set up your camera to deliver your opening statement and closing argument standing, then reconfigure it for sitting during the examination of witnesses.
- Tip—Give yourself plenty of time to choose and arrange your remote advocacy space.
- While you might have been used to playing director in a live advocacy setting, you must now add on the role of producer. You now must scout out the “set.” You might have to do some construction on your set and, ultimately, you will be deciding the camera ...the movie. Someone decides where to put the cameras and checks the sound for echoes, feedback, and errant noises. Someone plays with the lighting and atmosphere at different times of day and under different conditions to find the perfect shot. When the actor shows up, his or her spot is marked and the blocking is set, so that every movement accomplishes the goal of the director. Unless you have a budding studio producer at your disposal, that someone is you. It is not impossible, but it does take time and may require creativity. You may want to order or buy supplies. You will almost certainly need to repurpose household items. You will want to test everything, modify, and practice so that you can concentrate on your advocacy when...
- At this point you have probably found the space where you work. But where we work may not be the best space for conducting remote advocacy.
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Appendix Remote Advocacy Resources 4 results
Acknowledgments 2 results
- It takes a village to write a book. It takes a creative and dedicated village to write a book covering new advocacy skills arising out of a global pandemic—while in quarantine. To my personal village Jim and Jeremy—thank you for your continual support. Kennedy, you inspire me and give me confidence. I could not have done this without you all.
- Thanks to my dedicated colleagues at The University of Texas School of Law—Marla Massin, Andy Martinez, Korey Pereira and Cecilia Diaz. They could easily have said no when I proposed the many troubleshooting sessions, but graciously they did not. They answered my questions and worked with us to try every approach until we settled on the best practice. They coaxed friends and family members to be “jurors”. Thanks to Kasia Cristobal my amazing librarian. She scoured resources incessantly to keep me current and informed of the ever-evolving world of remote advocacy. To Natalie Fine thank you for doing research while studying for the bar exam.
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Center Title 1 result
Chapter 10 Deep Dive into Zoom 2 results
- panel. Because video is so vitally important in these times of Remote Advocacy, we will be walking
- If you are the Host of a meeting you have the ultimate control over many Zoom features. If you are part a large organization, such as a school, university or court you might have an administrator who is in control of many Zoom settings. Nevertheless, there are settings that you need to know about that impact your hearing, meeting or even trial. For example, if you wish to share screen and annotate your documents in Zoom, the court will need to set the permissions accordingly to allow you access.
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- Publication Date: January 11th, 2021
- ISBN: 9781647086435
- Subject: Lawyering Skills
- Series: Nutshells
- Type: Overviews
- Description: The definitive guide to the brave new world of remote advocacy for the trial and appellate practitioner—as well as law students and recent law grads. Full of keen insights and practice tips to help you be the best advocate you can be in remote proceedings of all types, including remote courtrooms (hearings, bench and jury trial), arbitrations, mediations, appellate practice, depositions, and other forums. This book combines leading research on persuading audiences over remote platforms combined with tips on conquering the technical aspects of using remote platforms to your fullest potential. A useful tech section covers the basics to more advanced applications. Based on extensive troubleshooting sessions and discussions with judges and lawyers in remote proceedings following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, this is the essential guide for remote proceedings that have since proliferated in the legal world—while acknowledging the continuing need for remote advocacy in the future.