Legal Power - Critical Communication Skills for Trial Attorneys
Copyright © 2006 by Terry Glaser

Learn the critical communication skills that make the difference between winning and losing a case.

• Master your body language so that it:
Elicits the trust of jurors.
Enhances the persuasive power of your presentations to judges and juries.
Reinforces, instead of undermining or negating, your verbal communication.



• Read the body language of others.
  
  
• Control your vocal delivery to maximize its power and effectiveness.
  
  
• Achieve rapport with others by using nonverbal triggers and responders.
  
  
• Reduce stress and control anxiety before, during, and after presentations.

Each session of the workshop starts with physical warm-ups, essential for energizing the body, engaging the intellect, and replacing the concerns of the everyday world with the focus of the session. The workshop is entirely interactive, teaching the skills through the practice of exercises and role playing.

* The Body as Communicator
           Open and closed body positions
           Movement styles
                  Determining your personal style
                  Altering movement styles to alter emotional states            
           Spatial comfort zones            
           Gestural modalities: thinking, feeling, willing                  
                  Achieving rapport by reading and matching modalities in others
                  Guiding others into desired modalities

* Status Transactions
           Physical and vocal characteristics of high and low status
           Use of space and objects
           Reading the status of others
           Altering status to achieve rapport or to take command
           Maximum and minimum status gaps
           Equalizing status in groups

* Communication Blockers and Enhancers
           Relationship to objects and furniture
           Verbal and physical blockers and acceptors
           Incorporation
                  Meeting people where they are and helping them go further

* Vocal Paralanguage
           Using volume, inflection, dynamics, speed, and rhythm to reinforce meaning
           Removing vocal fillers
           Articulating clearly and cleanly

* Controlling Anxiety
           Achieving outer-directed focus
           Rewriting self-defeating mental scripts
           Calming the mind and body
           Converting anxiety into positive energy