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.

 

 

 

6)    Make sure you either repeat your audience member's questions, or they use the audience microphone.

7)     Try to stay on time - we have an ambitious agenda!

8)     Despite #6 above, give them details/specific information, tips, advice whenever you can. They typically don’t like broad brush generalities.

9)     Meet their needs – you know generally why they are here based on our topics, and more specifically if you do # 1 above, so make sure your goal is to meet their needs and answer the question, “what’s in it for me” that is on all their minds.

10)   Smile and have fun!   Believe it or not, many of these programs can be a lot of fun if you interact with your audience (hence knowing some of their names, as discussed in #1 above) and let your own spontaneous humor flow – or tell humorous stories.  And that helps lighten things up and make it more interesting!

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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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     This is the first in a series of Top Tip posts I’ll be making on litigation and presentation skills, culled from Pincus Professional Education CLE programs by judges, staff attorneys and practitioners, as well as the public speaking and oral argument courses I teach.

Improving your Oral Argument, Part I:

Presentation skills are critical to the success of any attorney. We need to be good at presenting in the board room, the court room, the office and even in the community, because that is what the job demands.

And, the better one is at public speaking, in any context, the more that person is perceived as an expert and a leader and the more that person advances in her or his career.

Below are five quick tips to improve your public speaking skills in the court room – but I could go on forever, and will provide more later on. These tips come straight from judges and court staff attorneys.  

1. Find out who your audience is and meet their needs: in this case – the judge(s) or Justice(s)

Make sure your presentation is right for your audience – your trial or appellate judge.  Who is the judge and what is her or his (or their) approach on the bench? Should you expect a lot of questions, a quiet judge, a hot panel? Instead of approaching the argument from your perspective, approach it from theirs.

How do you do this?

•  ask around;

•  most importantly, take the time to go see your judge(s) / justice(s) in action, on multiple days;

•  think you don’t have time for a and b above?

You really do, you just have to give something else up – one less lunch, one less day at the gym, or a few less billable hours that month … whatever it is you have to give up, it is worth it to not be surprised the day of your argument.

And you will be amazed at how much you learn just by watching other attorneys do well, or not so well.

For a quick post on finding out more about your judge, regardless of where the court is located, see "Well, You’re Better Than You Look.” by Eileen Burkhalter Smith on the Young Lawyers Blog for more ideas on this topic.    

2. Organize, Organize, Organize

One of the biggest problems attorneys have when presenting is being disorganized. That includes trying to cover too much. 

In an oral argument, you have time to cover, at most, 3 important issues. Pick your top three issues, and practice arguing them in any order possible.

For an excellent, detailed post on the how to organize, the judge's perspective, and what to expect, see Andrew Frey's article, "Preparing and Delivering Oral Argument" on Mayer Brown's Appellate Net site. 

3. Don’t read your brief or your presentation.

First rule of oral argument: never read your brief. Assume the judge and her lawclerks have read it. 

Second rule, don’t write your presentation out word for word and read it. I know some of you love to do this, but it is a habit you have to learn to drop.  

Oral argument is your opportunity to have a conversation with your judge(s). 

It’s one of the most exciting, rewarding parts of litigating (really!). This is your chance to engage on an intellectual level with your judge and it’s their chance to get their questions answered (see #4 below) and learn what they need to learn to decide the case.

None of that happens if you read a presentation. On top of that, it really annoys judges.

I once heard a 20+ year career staff attorney for an appellate court describe oral argument this way:

“the most effective advocate imagines he or she is a law clerk in chambers explaining why a judge should go a certain way. They are not argumentative; instead, they focus on having a conversation about why judge should make the desired ruling.”
 

Many courts provide tips on their website and also post post oral arguments for you to learn from.  For example check out the Florida Supreme Court's information, "Information about Oral Arguments."

 

 

 

4. Answer the  question.

I watch attorneys make this mistake all the time. And it is probably the #1 complaint I get from judges, justices and law clerks. 

When your judge/justice asks you a question, think of it as a red flag waving in front of you – this is what they are interested in and want to know more about. Stop. Listen. Listen to the whole question – don’t answer it in your head while they are still asking. Take a moment to compose your answer (they will respect that), and then answer it concisely and directly. 

And if you don’t know the answer, admit it, and offer to provide a written answer by brief supplement the following morning. Don’t fake it – they can smell that a mile away. 

5. Don’t argue with opposing counsel.

This tends to happen a lot at the trial level. Despite what you see on TV, attorneys arguing with each other in court during oral argument is a big no-no. Why? It doesn't’t accomplish any of your goals and it hampers your credibility (see my first post about "Attorney Credibility" on this blog): 

•  First, the other attorney is not’t your audience; 

•  Second, you’re not engaging with your judge or answering his or her questions;

•  Third, you can’t make a record by arguing with opposing counsel;

•  And finally, Judges find it worse than annoying – they think it is stupid. 

 

Remember – public speaking and oral argument are an acquired art. Not everyone is a natural born speaker, but everyone can improve by learning how to do it better.

Oh, and don't forget to make sure your travel plans allow you to show up on time.   In her post: "My Young Lawyer Experience: “That’ll be $50!” Eileen Burkhalter Smith writes about when she got fined by the court for showing up late for an argument.

 

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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.

It's an important, but often overlooked, suggestion, especially at the big law firms. 

I get approached by solo and small firm practitioners to speak at my CLE programs on a regular basis.  But I can't remember ever hearing from a senior associate (or any associate) at a large law firms. It's an interesting trend. 

Solos and small firm practitioners - painfully aware of their need to market their services to get paid - know how valuable it is to speak in public. 

For solo / small firm practitioners, the benefits include:

• more exposure in the legal community, which leads to...
• client and consulting referrals, as well as...
• reputation building, and of course,
• networking, etc. 

For associates at larger law firms, the benefits are the same, plus:

• good "corporate citizen" points when it comes time for bonuses, reviews and partnership (i.e. it helps answer the perennial question: what have you done for the firm lately)
• resume building for lateral moves,
• and, ultimately, all of the above help tremendously if it ever comes time jump ship (voluntarily or not) and seek employment elsewhere.

 So... kudos to Kashmir and Dan for reminding associates that when they have a few extra hours available, or a few hundred extra hours, they should be working on potential instructional presentations and pitching local, state and national bar associations, niche bar associations and CLE companies.

And for you procrastinators... follow the Nike method ... just do it.

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