Field Notes on Pressure
How to hold up when the questions get hard — depositions, cross-examination, interrogations, interviews, and every room where what you say gets used against you.
The Expert Witness and the Hypothetical That Changes One Critical Fact
A good hypothetical does not need theatrics. It needs one altered assumption. Practice explaining where the conclusion stops being valid.
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Before You Upload a Deposition Transcript to an AI Tool, Ask These Questions
A lock icon is not a data-processing agreement. The questions to ask before confidential testimony leaves the firm.
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The Slack Message That Disappeared After the Litigation Hold
The retention setting was routine. The timing was not. Collaboration tools can erase material while lawyers still debate the hold notice.
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The Treating Physician Who Accidentally Became Your Retained Expert
"The doctor treated the patient" is not the end of the expert-disclosure analysis. The origin and scope of the opinions matter.
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Rule 702 After 2023: Reliability Is Not Automatically a Jury Problem
The amended Rule 702 puts the burden on the proponent. Sufficiency of the basis and reliable application are not automatically jury questions.
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The Witness Who Answers Three Questions You Never Asked
The first answer was correct. The next forty seconds were opposing counsel's birthday present. Teach proportionality, not robotic brevity.
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The Deposition Errata Sheet Is Not a Time Machine
The transcript arrives and, miraculously, the witness remembers a better answer. Rule 30(e) does not make the original testimony vanish.
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Your Expert’s Report Is Finished. Has Anyone Tried to Break It?
The expert signed the report. Everyone celebrated. Meanwhile, a footnote relies on an assumption nobody tested.
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The 30(b)(6) Witness Who Knows Everything Except the Noticed Topics
An executive's institutional memory is not the organization's prepared testimony. Start with the notice, not the witness.
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What to Do When You Don't Know the Answer — Under Oath
"I don't know" is a complete answer. Guessing is where witnesses get taken apart. How to hold the line without looking evasive.
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Answer Only the Question You Were Asked
On cross, every extra word is a brick you hand the other side. The discipline of the narrow answer — and why volunteering is how you lose.
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How to Handle “What's Your Greatest Weakness” Without Flinching
The most predictable question in the room is a trap dressed as small talk. What they're really testing, and how to disarm it.
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The Pause Is Bait: Why Silence Makes You Talk
Interrogators and negotiators weaponize silence — they stop talking so you will. The mechanism, and how to sit in it.
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When They Attack Your Price: Reframe, Don't Defend
“Too expensive” is rarely about price. Defending the number concedes the premise. Reframe it — and never discount on reflex.
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