Continuing Legal Education Today : MCLE for Attorneys & Legal Professionals : Faith Pincus : Pincus Professional Education : Continuing Legal Education (CLE), Public Speaking

It's been a while, I know!  I am trying to get the hang of this whole blogging thing and have lots of ideas for the future. 

And while the post below might not start any hot conversation, it will hopefully help a few speakers do a better job, and help a few CLE attendees enjoy a program more (if the speakers do a better job! :-) ). 

So for right now, below is list of my top ten CLE speaking tips that I just emailed a bunch of my speakers who are teaching at my Federal Court Boot Camp in Chicago this friday (sold out!).  I thought I would share it here as well, since it is something I send out to the attorneys and judges who speak at my CLE  programs.

Here are my top ten CLE public speaking tips to help you be a hit with the audience:

1)     Spend the 20 – 30 minutes before your program starts mingling with the audience members (instead of sitting on the dias).

• Introduce yourself to at least 10 different people (more if possible). 
• Get their names.  Jot their names down if you can on a note pad/seating chart, so you can remember during the program and mention them by name (or call on them by name).
• Find out why they are there and about what they hope to learn.  I usually ask, literally, “so.. .why are you here?... what are one or two things you would really like to learn about in this program.”
• Why do all this?  It helps make you more approachable, will endear you to the audience, will give you a small representative idea of what some folks want to hear about, and if you are a practitioner, it is an excellent networking tool (even if they are associates) with people who may, down the road, refer you business.  Remember, some of these folks will also be experienced practitioners who are just new to federal court.

 

2)    Don’t read off  your outline.  Use your speaking outline to prompt your memory about what you wish to teach (have keywords/phrases about your teaching topics). 

Make sure you are prepared re: what you wish to teach, i.e. have multiple points and stories/examples written in your outline to cover re: each subject matter/topic, as appropriate. 

3)     If you are going to cite a case for any reason, cite it slowly and repeat it.  If you plan to cite more than one case and they are not in the outline, please bring enough copies of a case cite list to handout to everyone, so they have the resource and don’t have to rely on getting it down properly (think of them as court reporters).

4)     Try to know your stories/examples in advance – it is always hard to come up with them on the fly when speaking in public.  Stories and examples are great teaching techniques, as are metaphors.  Just make sure your stories are not super lengthy.

5)     Don’t let any one audience member hijack the program with questions that are off topic, too detailed/particular to their case, or too many questions about a particular case. 

The best way to handle this as soon as it starts is to tell them some version of the following, “It looks like you have a lot of questions about a particular issue/case, or it looks like you know a lot about this specific issue, can you write down your questions and see me on the break? I’d really like to discuss this further with you, but we need to move on right now.  Thanks!” 

And of course, answer their questions at the break of possible and if not, get their email to answer them later.

 

 

 

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Here are a few more tips from my interviews and conversations with judges, as well as from our programs:

 

Don't just grab that brief that your (or someone else) wrote and filed months ago and skim it before going in to court.  Study the facts and the cases like you're going to be taking a test on them.

That way you can respond to questions about anything in the brief, not just what you thought was important.

• Create a one page cheat sheet with issue, case cite, holding and page in brief

This allows you to respond to questions quickly, competently and professionally without having to search for cases in your brief while your judge(s) wait for you.

• Practice, Practice, Practice

A summary judgement motion is just as important as trial. Practice your argument, have someone moot you, be prepared.  A frequent complaint hear from judges is about attorneys who come in and wing it off their briefs.

And for a great short read about the other side of the coin, see "Five Oral Argument Tips - For Judges" on Howard Bashman's How Appealing.law Blog by the Hon. Michael W. Mosman,U.S. District Judge, District of Oregon on how judges could behave better when hearing oral arguments.

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In the spirit of David Letterman's Top Ten... here are the top10 ways to ensure you are not invited back to speak at an event:

10.   Spend the entire time you are on the panel eating snacks.

9.     Interrupt the other speakers and monopolize the program (when on a panel).

8.    Spend so much time reminiscing with your war stories you don't cover all, or even most, of your topics.

7.    Come unprepared and wing it.

6.    Bow out of an event after committing to the program, without providing a replacement speaker of equal credentials and quality.

5.     Present a canned Power Point that you use all the time, but doesnt really fit your topic.

4.     Arrive at the event a few minutes before you present with a Power Point presentation without having made any Power Point arrangements in advance.

3.     Read your outline or Power Point to the audience.

2.     Present on a topic other than what was agreed upon.

And the number one way......

1.     Show up late.

 

 

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I recently read a couple of posts at Above The Law detailing the drastic reduction in average billable hours for associates in 2009.

Their survey  showed average associate billing for 2009 at less than 1600 hours (no surprises there).  The pithy follow up post by Kashmir Hill discusses what's left for associates to do (besides Facebook and Mafia Wars) - she's pretty funny actually.

Suggestions provided by legal recruiter Dan Binstock, include:

• Write articles.

• Write speeches and present at conferences.

• Help partners with business development.

Write articles, speeches and present at conferences really should just be one big bullet point. This list is missing: hone your skills and increase your knowledge base.  But I'll get to that in another post.

My focus in this post is on Dan's second suggestion: create presentations and speak at CLE conferences.

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When it comes to an attorney creating a CLE program, or any presentation, there is a right way and a wrong way to speak and teach. The right way: focus on the intended audience.

Who are they? What do they want? What’s in it for them? 

Good speakers - CLE or otherwise - tailor their presentations to their audience - no matter how many times they have given it. 

Speakers on auto-dial are the ones who phone it in. They may be top notch litigators or corporate attorneys at the peak of their game, but unless they tailor their presentation to the audience at hand, it just doesn’t matter.  It does not cut it to whip out an old, tried and true Power Point and try to make it fit with the program theme.  I've seen quite a few speakers do this and they may get through the presentation unscathed, but they do not make a great over all impression with their audience.

One of the fundamental rules of public speaking is that it is about your audience, not you. Meet their needs, and do it in a logical, and hopefully, somewhat entertaining fashion and you’re good to go.

In the CLE context you can find out from the provider who is attending, who is the typical audience, or get the registration list and have your assistant google them. You can ask the provider to send a short survey to the attendees to better tailor your program.

And for peet’s sake – when you get to the CLE the day of the event – mingle with the audience before the program starts. Introduce yourself. Ask attendees about their practice. Ask them why they are attending, if they have any particular concerns. 

Don’t just go sit up on the dias and flip through your notes for 20 minutes until the program starts. Use the pre-speech time as an opportunity to:

1. Get to know your audience personally and better
2. Network
3. Make any last minute adjustments to your presentation based on the feedback you get

Remember, it’s always about your audience.

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