The fewer obstructions between you and your jurors, the more persuasive you will be.  Yet many trial lawyers purposely place an obstacle between themselves and their jurors.  That obstacle?  Their notes.

Here’s the slippery slope your notes create: The more notes you bring with you to the lectern, the more you will depend upon them.  The more you depend on your notes, the less eye contact you will have with your jurors.  The less eye contact you have with the jurors, the less persuasive you will be.

Rather than bring copious notes to the lectern, try to bring no more than a one page outline with you.  Write out the main bullet points of your arguments, rather than word-for-word arguments, and you’ll force yourself to spend more time talking with your jury.  Your goal is to use an outline, not a script.  It’s okay to read quotations, it’s okay to read snippets of testimony, but please, don’t read your argument!

Here are a few tips you can use to minimize the amount of notes you bring to the lectern:

Use visual aids instead of an outline. If you use posters or computer images to help the jury follow your closing argument, you can embed your notes directly into your presentation.  Let’s say you have three posters for closing argument, one for each of the three elements you need to prove.  You can use the posters to remind you what point you should argue next.

Add secret messages on your flipchart. If you are using a flipchart, you can write notes to yourself on the flipchart.  If you write the notes in pencil, your jurors will never see your notes.  You can quickly glance at your handwritten note while explaining the flipchart to the jury, and they’ll never know you’re reading from your notes.

Use Presentation Mode in PowerPoint. In presentation mode, your laptop projects images onto two different monitors: the projection screen and your laptop monitor.  The jury only sees the images projected on the big screen.  You, however, see a completely different image on your laptop screen.  On that screen, you can type in whatever reminders you need, so you appear to be presenting without benefit of notes.

Embed secret images into your PowerPoint slides. You can also add secret to your PowerPoint slides.  In the bottom left hand corner of your slide, create a text box and type a few bullet points.  Use a simple font like Arial, and change the font size to 8 points.  At that size, most jurors won’t even see the text.  Their eyes will be focused on your larger text, and won’t look down at your hidden message.

Use bullet points. Rather than use an entire script of notes, condense your arguments to single bullet points.  Try to use fewer than 7 words to describe each of your argument points.  With only a few words written for each point, you’ll be forced to take your eyes off the paper and look at your jurors.

No matter which technique you use, endeavor to become less dependent upon your notes.  Eliminate the barriers between you and your jurors, and you’ll make more frequent eye contact with your jurors.  The more eye contact you make with them, the more persuasive you’ll be.

“You’re not even listening to me!”

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that phrase.  I’m sure it won’t be the last time I hear that phrase, either.  And candidly, no, I wasn’t listening to her.  But there’s a pretty good reason why I wasn’t listening…

I wasn’t listening to her because of the monkeys.

Let me explain.  Behind her head and directly in my line of sight was a big screen TV showing an ad for a job search website.  The ad shows a young guy in an office surrounded by monkeys.  The monkeys are dressed in business suits and they’re seated around a conference table, conducting a business meeting.

I love monkeys.

Just once in my life I want to dress a chimpanzee in a business suit, bring him to court, and seat him next to me at counsel table for the entire trial.  (If I can train him to hold a sign that says “Tell Us What Happened Next,” he could even perform a direct examination or two.)  Monkeys in business suits are hilarious.  Probably the only thing funnier than monkeys in business suits are monkeys in spacesuits.  It doesn’t matter how bad your day is, when you see a monkey in a suit, you start laughing.  Monkeys in suits make the world a better place.

So anyway, that’s why I wasn’t listening to her.  I could see the monkeys on the TV, and my mind was immediately distracted.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to listen to her, and it wasn’t that I meant to ignore her.  It’s just impossible for anyone to compete with the visual image of monkeys in business suits.  When I see a monkey in a business suit, I’m compelled to watch.

If you’re not careful, the same compulsion can harm your presentations.

When you present to an audience, you want them to focus on your message.  Most of the time, your message comes from the words you say and how you say them.  As we improve our presentation skills, however, we’ve started adding more visual imagery to our presentations.  We now show jurors poster-size photos in opening statements, use overhead projectors to zoom in on important portions of documents during testimony, and make dramatic use of PowerPoint during closing argument.

These advances can dramatically improve your presentations.  However, you want to make sure that your visual aids are helping the jurors focus on your message, rather than distracting them from it.

Make sure your visual aid isn’t becoming a monkey in a suit.  Don’t let strong visual aids distract the jury from your message.  The only time they should see your visual aids is when the images emphasize the particular presentation point that you’re making.  If your visual aid emphasizes [A], you don’t want the jury focusing on that image while you’re discussing [B], because they’ll ignore the point you’re trying to make.  Here are three quick tips to prevent visual aids from hijacking the jury’s attention:

1. Don’t show the image to the jury until you’re ready. Once the jurors see your image, their eyes will be irresistibly drawn towards it.  Stack your posters out of the jury’s sight or cover the projector lens until you’re ready to discuss that point.

2. Don’t compete with your images. When you first display the image, give the jurors time to read it to themselves.  If you talk while they’re reading it, they will ignore you.  Read it quietly to yourself twice before you resume speaking, and that should give them enough time to digest the message.

3. Hide the image when you’re done. When you want to direct the jury’s focus back towards you or towards your witness, remove the image from their sightline.  If you’re using PowerPoint, hit the “B” key to turn the screen black (hitting “B” again will return you to your image).  If you’re using a physical prop, completely remove the image from their sightline before moving on to your next subject.

Most of us can only focus on one thing at a time.  Before you start your next presentation, determine when you want the jurors to focus on what you’re saying and when you want them to focus on what you’re showing.  With a little advance planning, you’ll prevent your visual aids from competing with your verbal messages.

And if your visual aid involves monkeys in business suits?  Just forget it — no one can compete with that!

Have you ever found yourself “on the spot,” forced to respond to difficult questions?  Regardless of whether the questions came from clients inquiring about their cases, from a senior partner asking about a brief you wrote, or from a judge cross-examining you during a motion hearing, it’s always a frustrating experience when you’re asked difficult questions that you haven’t anticipated and aren’t fully prepared to answer.

It’s even worse when you know that you know the correct answer, but for whatever reason, can’t seem to coax it to the surface from within the dark recesses of your brain.  What do you do in those situations, when you need to buy some extra time to gather your thoughts?

If you’re like many lawyers, you probably stumble and stammer your way through a jumble of meanderings and half-processed ideas until you can finally find your train of thought and begin answering intelligently.  Unfortunately, the first few moments of your answer are far too precious to waste on disconnected thoughts and random musings.  You can’t afford to begin with a bad impression.  You need the first words out of your mouth to not only demonstrate your knowledge of the topic, but to also display your command of the situation.  How can you do that when you have no idea what to say and desperately need a few extra moments to gather your thoughts?

Luckily for you, there are some simple techniques you can use to buy that extra time you need before responding to a difficult question.

1. Pause (Part 1). Why do so many lawyers feel the need to immediately respond after they’ve been asked a question?  Is it a need to demonstrate their command of the situation?  Because they’re afraid someone else will jump in and dominate the conversation?  Or maybe it’s because silence feels so awkward?  Whatever the reason, many lawyers cannot resist the urge to fill the silence with mindless noise.   As soon as the question has been asked, they feel obligated to fill the gap with sound.  But yielding to that temptation robs you of the opportunity to gather your thoughts and organize your response.

You would be amazed at what your brain can process in the span of a few seconds.  If you would allow yourself just two or three seconds to compose yourself and think about what you intend to say, your brain will usually find the correct answer for you.  Unfortunately, few speakers are willing to be quiet long enough to let themselves think.  How you handle those few moments of silence depends on your level of confidence.  For the uncertain speaker, those three seconds can feel like an eternity, especially when a judge or a senior partner is the person who asked the question.  For the confident lawyer, however, that same three or four second pause feels completely natural.

To immediately improve your ability to handle difficult questions, strive to become accustomed to silence and comfortable with moments of silence during a conversation.  Develop the habit of waiting for a moment or two before responding to questions (regardless of their difficulty), and pausing will soon become second nature to you.

2. Repeat the question. In conjunction with a pause, this technique can buy you plenty of time to formulate your response.  Repeating the question is optional when speaking to a single individual, but if you ever find yourself speaking before a large audience, this technique is essential.  In a larger room, many audience members won’t hear the question the first time it’s asked.  By repeating the question, you’ll not only include the entire audience in the conversation, you’ll also buy yourself precious time to plan your response.

3. Pause (Part 2). Sometimes, you’ll need more than three or four seconds to respond.  It’s appropriate to tell the questioner that you’ll be taking more time (“Let me think about that for a moment before I respond”), but you can also remain quiet and think about your response.  As we mentioned earlier, most people are uncomfortable with silence.  If you maintain eye contact while pausing to collect your thoughts, your questioner will often feel the need to fill the void of silence.  When that happens, they’ll usually provide you with more information, such as “I’m asking because…” or “What I’m trying to determine is…”  This additional information will often help you tailor your response to the questioner’s actual needs.

4. Ask the questioner to repeat their question. Asking your questioner to repeat the question can be perceived as an obvious delay tactic, so don’t use this technique too often.  It’s best to limit your use of this technique to those situations where you honestly don’t hear the entire question.

5. Clarify the question. Presumably, the reason you’re being questioned is because someone wants an answer, not because they enjoy harassing you.  If that’s true, there’s nothing wrong with clarifying the scope of their question so that you can provide them with a more relevant response.  Asking clarification questions (ex. “When you say, ‘injuries,’ are you referring to all reported on-the-job injuries, or only those that required medical treatment?” or “Define for me what you mean by ‘web presence.’  Are you referring to just our website, or to all of the inbound links and AdWords campaigns we’ve created?”) not only gives you more time to think, it also allows you to present a more targeted and valuable answer.

As a lawyer, you’re probably going to find yourself answering lots of difficult questions throughout your career.  Apply these techniques and you’ll not only appear more confident and more authoritative, but your responses will become better organized and more persuasive.