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NITA Notes - February 2008 |
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Dear Legal Professional
 How is your Japanese? Spanish? French? Thai? Filipino? Khmer? Mandarin?
On the international front, NITA materials and teaching methods have expanded beyond the traditional English-speaking countries and impacted many countries in Eastern Europe, Europe, and Africa. But in today's global society, NITA has been invited to give presentations, programs, and teacher training throughout the world. Most recently, NITA was invited to provide teacher training sessions in Manila and Mexico City, signed a major cooperative teaching venture with PRODERECHO (the USAID-supported NGO in Mexico), and will be signing a historic Agreement for Academic Exchange and Cooperation with PSIM (a consortium of over twenty-two Japanese law schools). Our cooperative efforts with ABA-CEELI continue to support training in Eastern European countries, such as Moldova, Serbia and Armenia. In Africa, we work with the South African Black Lawyers Association and Lawyers Without Borders to support programs in South Africa, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania. Our efforts have also brought programs and materials to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and (soon) Cambodia, as well as Chile, El Salvador, Colombia and Argentina. In each of these countries, we have impacted the justice system through our efforts to educate lawyers and law students in the use of ethical and effective advocacy.
These efforts can only be accomplished through the support of our faculty. So if you are already part of our teaching corps, possibly have experience in the courts of other countries and are fluent in other languages, please email me (lrose@nita.org), and we can try to use your talents as we expand our efforts. And if you have the international experience and the language facility, but now wish to join our faculty ranks, take that first step and attend a NITA Teacher Training Program. The 2008 Programs will be in Boston (March 28-30), Louisville (June 25-27), and San Francisco (November 7-9), so sign up now. NITA needs more international faculty and will be happy to accept your offer to join us.
See you in NITA City.
Sincerely,
Laurence M. Rose
President & CEO
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Each month NITA Notes features a NITA faculty member or members who provide readers with tips to make their law practice a best practice. This month's featured scholar is Katherine James of ACT of Communication in Los Angeles.
Preparing Child Witnesses - A Primer in Compassion
A beautiful ten-year-old boy sits in front of me. He is all smiles. I smile back. His attorney is sitting beside me. "Do you know why your whole family is here meeting with Mr. Jason and me today?" He says triumphantly, "Because of the trial, Miss Katherine!" I nod and smile at his attorney, Mr. Jason-clearly this boy has been well prepared for meeting with a trial consultant about testifying. I say, "That's right. Because of the trial. What is the trial for?" He looks a little stumped. Being the brilliant intuitive I am, I assume I have asked the question stupidly, so with great compassion I say, "I know you know that the trial is about how your mama was killed by the train and how your sister is in the wheelchair-but-" I stop short. His body is shaking. His eyes are huge. He seems to have stopped breathing. "Oh my God, baby," I whisper. "Have you never talked to anyone about what happened?" He slowly shakes his head and tears begin streaming down his face. I look at his attorney who seems shell-shocked and whispers to me, "I never knew-I guess I assumed-"
The first rule of preparing a child to testify is that you can't assume. You are, most likely, this child's attorney. You are not allowed to assume that someone else has told this child what the case is about or why this child has to testify. In the case of this ten-year-old, his family told me later that day that they hadn't told the boy anything about the facts surrounding his mother's death or his sister's confinement in a wheelchair in the two years before I met him because "he never asked." They weren't bad people-they loved him very much-but they didn't know they were supposed to talk to him. They didn't know any better. But his lawyer's duty was to know better. His lawyer's duty was to give him the information.
I helped his lawyer do this through a series of questions:
1. "Do you have any questions about what happened?"
("Yes")
2. "What's your first question?"
The attorney was able to "tell" his child client all about the case through simply answering his questions as he asked them one at a time. When the child didn't have any more questions and there was still important information that the attorney needed to give the client, the attorney (with my coaching) then asked:
1. "Do you have any more questions right now?" ("No.")
2. "Good. I have a question for you. Can I ask it?" ("Yes.")
And so the attorney "gave" all the information in a series of questions.
Asking a child witness questions serves another purpose. You are also practicing what your relationship will be in court. You will be asking questions, and the child will be responding to the questions. Just like any other attorney and witness.
What should your demeanor be when asking these questions? You need to be the trusted friend and confidant that you are. You must look completely non-judgmental. You will smile openly and you will look sad in a compassionate manner. You know-like you would have liked someone to have looked and acted with you when you were ten years old. Not like a parent, not like a teacher, not like any other adult you had in your life then-but someone who would really be in your corner. A true advocate.
Who should be in the room with you and the child? Other than your team members (paralegal, co-counsel, trial consultant)-no one. And even then, for a period of time, you should be completely alone with this child-just as you would be with any other client. Why? So you can explain to the child that you are this child's attorney. That you share a relationship that is so sacred it goes past the grave. In this case, our ten-year-old boy understood that Mr. Jason was his attorney when he was told that he could tell Mr. Jason anything and that Mr. Jason would take it with him to the grave unless our lad gave his permission to tell other people about it. He really relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief when he was promised he could call Mr. Jason any time of the day or night and talk to him about any questions he had about the case. The child proudly put Mr. Jason's business card in his backpack with all the phone numbers on the front and hand written by his attorney on the back "Your Lawyer." They shook hands.
"Are you ready to talk with Miss Katherine about your mama now?" his attorney asked the child. Solemnly the child nodded and turned to me. I smiled and said, "Tell me about your Mama."
Now-that was a child well represented. Why? Because he knew it. Because he felt safe and secure in the attorney-client relationship. Because he was ready to talk to a stranger about the most difficult time in his young life with the kind of confidence a person can only have when they feel protected. Because, finally, he had a lawyer.
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Faculty Q&A: Elizabeth J. Sher 
In an effort to highlight and introduce NITA's faculty, program directors, and authors to the NITA community, we will periodically publish a personal interview. In this issue of NITA Notes we are talking to NITA Faculty Elizabeth J. Sher of Day Pitney in Morristown, New Jersey.
NITA: A little bit about you. What is your legal background?
ES: My nametag usually says "Elizabeth," but I always go by Beth. (That's how I know I'm not in court or in trouble.) I graduated from NYU School of Law in 1983, clerked on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, joined what was then Pitney Hardin Kipp & Szuch in Morristown, New Jersey in 1984, and have been there ever since. I am a partner in the Commercial Litigation Department at what became Day Pitney LLP on January 1, 2007. I practice in both federal and state court, primarily in New Jersey and New York.
NITA: How did you come to know NITA?
ES: Our firm's tradition was to send all new litigation partners to the National Session, and so my first NITA experience was in Boulder in 1993-nothing like starting at the top! I then brought NITA programs in-house to our firm, after which I was invited to join the faculty at the New Jersey Deposition Skills Program in 1998. Since then, I have been a faculty member and team leader for deposition and trial training programs all over the country. And, as Chair of our firm's professional development committee, I have arranged for dozens of our associates to attend NITA programs over the past fifteen years, with more to follow!
NITA: How has NITA (or NITA training/experience) played out in your practice?
ES: Every program I attend-no matter in what capacity-results in my being a better lawyer with keener insights, sharper skills, and a better understanding of the interdependency of discovery and trial. I can only hope I contribute as much as I gain from each interaction with the participants and my faculty colleagues.
NITA: Describe your greatest success.
ES: My greatest achievement has been raising two amazing daughters-now very successful college students-of whom I am extremely proud, and who say they are very proud of me for successfully having balanced my family and a full-time legal career since they were born.
NITA: Describe your teaching style in two sentences.
ES: I always try to know in advance what it is I want to teach, why it is worth learning, and what is the best way to communicate it. I try to be constructive, clear, and concise-and to acknowledge the difference between what is "wrong" and what may be simply "better."
NITA: Why do you think an attorney should attend a NITA program?
ES: I am a firm believer that the best way to learn and internalize a skill is to actually practice it, evaluate it, and practice it again. No organization has perfected the method for "learning by doing" as well as NITA and its dedicated faculty all across the country.
NITA: What do you think NITA's impact has been and continues to be?
ES: I know from my personal experience, as well as the experience of my colleagues at the firm and the many students with whom I have worked, that NITA has improved the quality of the lawyering and the professionalism of each person who has walked through its doors, whether for one day or two weeks. Add to the extraordinary success of the teaching method the spirit of collegiality and volunteerism, and the fact that competitive advocates train those who may be their adversaries-all for the betterment of the profession as a whole-and you'll see immediately what distinguishes and elevates NITA to the top of the CLE pack!
NITA: What else do you want the NITA community to know?
ES: Simply that I am honored to have been a part of this organization for nearly fifteen years, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue to teach and to learn with my NITA colleagues for many years to come.
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NITA Case Study Highlights Involvement with the California Department of Justice
The California Department of Justice (CADOJ) is always looking for ways to improve its ability to protect the citizens of California and uphold the rule of law, as well as improve staff retention and improve job performance and satisfaction. Given that trial time is infrequent, ensuring its cadre of attorneys is prepared for the courtroom is an ongoing challenge.
Providing training to its staff is not a simple thing. Justifying lost billable hours due to time away from the office can only be done if the training significantly improves advocacy skills and clearly serves as a retention tool.
Solution: In 2007, the CADOJ hired the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) to deliver multiple customized trial skills and deposition skills training programs across the state. Overall, over 250 attorneys in four CADOJ regional offices were trained in the three-day programs.
Results: The attorneys reported appreciation for the NITA learning-by-doing professional development experience. Anecdotal reports in subsequent months indicate higher job satisfaction, increased staff retention, and improved advocacy skills and confidence in serving the state. The success is partly due to the fact that the customized training included lawyer instructors from within the organization allowing the institutional knowledge of CADOJ to be creatively incorporated.
Their Story: Like so many state agencies mandated with ensuring that the rule of law is adhered to, the CADOJ sought a way to improve the abilities of its staff attorneys. One of the CADOJ practice groups, for example, had grown so rapidly due to the rising prison population that the state's hiring structure and funding limited its ability to hire experienced trial lawyers.
"[The experience of our staff attorneys] was a mile wide and an inch deep," said Frances T. Grunder, Senior Assistant Attorney General for the state.
Depositions and trials are daunting enough for experienced lawyers, but without any training on effective preparation and execution, the odds are that attorneys will make serious and costly mistakes. These lawyers needed litigation skills training to not only draw practical information but to increase confidence and learn the art of telling a client's story.
"Training was hit or miss over the years," said Grunder, "and we decided to bring in people for whom training is their business."
The CADOJ turned to NITA and Program Director Terre Rushton to tailor the Trial Skills and Deposition Skills programs to fit its needs. The programs covered the basics of effective strategies and tactics to win at trial and how to effectively conduct a deposition. The programs incorporated NITA's signature "learning-by-doing" method, enabling participants to practice and perfect their abilities and benefit from in-depth live and videotaped faculty critiques of what worked and what needed improvement, down to the details of gesture and stance.
Additionally, the trainings were organized by experience level so that participants received the appropriate attention, which in turn was a better allocation of the CADOJ's resources. The goal was to create the best possible training for each individual attorney.
"What this means is that the lawyers who had never done a depo before could do one now," said Rushton. "They feel like they've had real life experience." Learning-by-doing allows the participant to kinesthetically discover and visualize courtroom performance, providing a far more impactful experience than reading a book or attending a lecture.
Citing NITA's reputation of being the best trial skills training provider, the CADOJ's CLE coordinator, Janie Daigle, commented that NITA's faculty have "instant credibility. They are experienced people, bringing real world knowledge to the classroom. Their experience is not only from the real-life courtroom, but also in NITA's courtrooms, so they know what it's like to be up there. That makes it easy to get up and going." Grunder affirmed this, saying, "If you're going to do it, do it right with an organization that comes with all the materials and experience as a package deal." Because no other organization has the publications, materials, faculty, and administration, "NITA was by far the best choice to meet the CADOJ's needs," said Grunder.
"[This training] instills confidence in people, knowing that they can do it and it's not as scary as they thought," said Daigle. "Even attorneys with years of courtroom experience benefited. Some of the people who took the classes had maybe twenty-five years' experience, but many of these lawyers only went to trial about once a year. Skills get rusty if you don't use them."
Because of the lawyers' enhanced confidence, formal training increases employee loyalty. "This training gives the lawyers confidence that they can stay here and do the kinds of things where they would use these skills," stated Daigle. Knowing that they are capable of doing what they were hired to do motivates the attorneys to stay in their positions. Also, it says to the lawyers chosen to attend that their agency cares about their development and sees promise worth fostering. "It's a huge pat on the back," says Rushton.
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NITA Faculty Member Authors Biography
 NITA faculty member, attorney, and author, Steven Harper presents his sophomore work, Straddling Worlds: The Jewish-American Journey of Professor Richard W. Leopold. In this new work, Harper tells the story of Professor Leopold by capturing the seemingly ordinary moments in life that ultimately define who we are. Leopold, whose career spanned nearly six decades, was a mentor, trailblazer, and an award winning expert in the academic field of history. While teaching at Harvard and Northwestern, Leopold was professor to now well-known students: former senator George McGovern, former majority leader Dick Gephardt, and Crate and Barrel founder Gordon Segal, as well as Harper. Straddling Worlds analyzes the impact that the events of the twentieth century had on Leopold, as well as the individual challenges that Leopold overcame. This work is based on dozens of private conversations between Harper and Leopold as well as 185 boxes of Leopold's private papers stored in Northwestern's archives.
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Ford Named New England Super Lawyer
 Debra Ford, of Devine Millimet in North Hampton, was named as one of the top fifty Super Women Lawyers in New England for 2007. Ford has twenty-five years of experience counseling and representing employers in litigation matters. Ford is a NITA faculty member, who was elected as a fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers in June 2006. Only five percent of the total lawyers in the state are selected for super lawyer's distinction, marking this high honor.
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NITA Welcomes New Director of Development
In January Eleni Sarris joined the NITA team as the Director of Development for the Foundation. Prior to joining NITA, Eleni was the Executive Director for the Credit Union Foundation of Colorado and Wyoming. In addition to having served as a consultant to a number of non-profit organizations, she served as Director of Development for Opera Colorado and as Executive Director of the Justice Information Center, where she worked with a number of lawyer-volunteers and provided programs involving education on issues such as domestic violence and assistance to victims of crime. | |
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Featured Program:
Rocky Mountain Child Advocacy Training Institute
Child advocacy training is critical for many attorneys, as every year thousands of children find themselves involved in legal action. Whether this action might involve juvenile delinquency, neglect, or custody disputes, the importance of being able to perform in the courtroom cannot be understated. This is why NITA has teamed together with The National Association of Counsel for Children, and the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center to promote their joint venture: The Rocky Mountain Child Advocacy Training Institute.
The program is scheduled for May 19 through May 23 at the NITA Education Center in Louisville, Colorado.
Each day the program will focus on a new set of trial skills such as mastering case analysis, foundations for testimony, and examining expert witnesses. By the end of the program, participants will dramatically improve their techniques to become more effective advocates. A diverse mix of instructors, including nationally recognized lawyers and judges, creates an environment where participants are challenged to perform to the best of their ability.
This program is offered at a substantially reduced tuition rate in an effort to provide quality training to all lawyers working on cases involving children, including GALs, public prosecutors, public defenders, respondent parent's counsel, and other family court practitioners.
For more information on this or other NITA programs visit our website. |
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Featured Publications
Whether it is a DVD, case file, or comprehensive text, NITA has developed a variety of publications with the child advocate in mind. Over the years, NITA's public service mission has continued to evolve and publications such as these have fostered that growth. Visit us online to learn more.
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Have You Seen It?
New programs. New books. New calendar. The 2008 NITA calendar should have arrived in your mailbox last month. Take the time to look over the calendar and utilize its full listing of all NITA's 2008 programs. Inside the calendar you'll find:
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Listing of all NITA programs through December 2008
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Detailed Information on every program including price, location, program director, and CLE credits
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Information on registering for NITA programs
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New publications
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Interesting legal trivia, quotes, and historical events
If you did not receive The 2008 Calendar, please e-mail marketing@nita.org to request your copy, or click here to download an e-copy. |
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A New Look For NITA News
NITA's online newsroom has received a makeover. The new look and feel of nita.org's news section is designed to help the visitor easily discover what NITA has to offer and what the organization is all about. The newsroom is easily navigable and contains archives of NITA Notes, links to NITA press coverage, case studies, testimonials, photo galleries, videos, and much more. Visit us at www.nita.org/newsroom and see for yourself all the great things going on in Nita City. |
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NITA Notes is published monthly by e-mail and covers topics of interest to the NITA community.
To subscribe to the newsletter or to view archived issues of NITA Notes visit www.nita.org.
To submit story ideas or to write for the Best Practices section of NITA Notes, please contact
Sara Musfeldt at 303.953.6841 or smusfeldt@nita.org
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