Podcast - Presentation is Paramount
In this episode of "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook," litigation attorney Dan Small discusses the art of persuasive delivery in the courtroom. He shares invaluable strategies emphasizing the significance of factors such as cadence, modulation and the strategic use of silence to convey a powerful and impactful message. Mr. Small also underscores the importance of speaking credibly and sincerely to effectively persuade the jury.
Listen to more episodes of The Trial Lawyer's Handbook here.
Mr. Small is also the author of the new American Bar Association (ABA) book Lessons Learned from a Life on Trial: Landmark Cases from a Veteran Litigator and what They Can Teach Trial Lawyers.
Dan Small: In a previous episode, we talked about the importance of delivering your presentation with confidence and conviction and the need to develop an effective courtroom voice. A truly persuasive delivery also requires careful attention to the cadence of your speech, the modulation of your voice and the effective use of brief moments of silence.
First, cadence. Pay attention to the cadence of your speech: the rhythm, the pace and the pauses between words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs to make your delivery as compelling as possible. In particular, a couple of points.
First, don't deliver everything at exactly the same speed. Shakespeare wrote some long, wonderful monologues for his characters, but they are not to be delivered in a monotone. For a great actor or actress, they're filled with opportunities for every cadence and every emotion in the rainbow. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" from Macbeth. "All the world's a stage" from "As You Like It." And of course, "To be, or not to be" from Hamlet. Go look them up. In a book, online, on YouTube, whatever your preference. And think about how much voice and delivery can vary and can matter fundamentally all within one piece.
Next, don't speak too quickly. The jury won't follow you, and the testimony won't sink in. If you know that you talk fast when you're nervous, that's OK. Put a big note in your notes in red saying slow down. They're your notes, who cares? Next, don't speak too softly. The jury will become impatient or bored. Pause from time to time, particularly when a point needs to be emphasized. Lawyers who are nervous often speed through their presentations. You may think you've made a great point, but if it goes by too quickly, no one else will be on board.
Second, modulation. Pay attention to the modulation of your voice: how you stress certain words, along with volume and pitch. Even subtle variations can add great interest or convey powerful meaning. It doesn't have to be loud. A whisper can pack more punch than a shout. Take a scene from Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles," where Sherlock Holmes questions Dr. Mortimer about evidence found at the scene of the victim's death.
"Footprints?" Holmes asks.
"Footprints."
"A man or woman's?"
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered, "Mr. Holmes. They were the footprints of a gigantic hound."
Third, silence. One of the most effective forms of communication is silence: the white space around your words. Use fewer words. Leave space around them. Let your words sink in before you go on to the next point. In particular, there's no better way to emphasize a witness' answer than to let it hang in the air for a few moments.
Suppose, for example, you elicit a very helpful response on cross-examination.
"Dr. Jones, you didn't check the test results before you administered the medication, did you?"
"No, I didn't, and that was a serious mistake."
If you get an answer like that, stop for a moment. Let it sink in. Don't suck all the drama out of your case by moving on too fast.
Suppose you were representing the family of a child killed in an automobile accident and you asked the following questions and received the following answer:
"What did the woman from the hospital tell you?"
"She told me that my little girl was dead."
Whatever is next on your outline, for heaven's sake, stop. Pause. Nothing you say could speak as powerfully as your silence.
Of course, silence can also be a powerful questioning tool. You ask a question. The witness gives an answer you don't think is complete. Sometimes the most effective response is silence. Uncomfortable silence. We all know it. Uncomfortable silence, which carries with it the unspoken, "where's the rest of it, you idiot?" And a surprising number of witnesses will give in to that discomfort and give you the rest.
Of course, to be persuasive, all of this has to be done credibly and sincerely. Don't be fake. Juries are good at spotting a phony and they don't like it. Chances are you're not a trained actor or actress, and you can't transform yourself into someone you're not. Nonetheless, just as you can work to develop the quality of what you say, so too, you can work to develop the quality of how you say it.