Busting Out of Our Silos

We litigators are always honing our craft and hunting for new strategies. But it can be hard to find fresh insights when we’re siloed in our own practice areas. In my practice, I’ve found that looking beyond my focus on IP and business litigation opens up whole worlds of valuable ideas.

Litigation is litigation. Regardless of practice area, we grapple with similar challenges: crafting arguments, winning over juries, negotiating resolutions, and helping our clients achieve their goals. Yet we don’t often peek over the fence to see how our colleagues tackle these challenges.

For example, a family lawyer’s experience managing high-conflict personalities in divorce cases might provide strategies for a corporate litigator navigating tense business disputes. Or the way a criminal defense attorney dismantles a witness’s credibility on cross-examination may help a patent litigator expose the biases or flawed assumptions of an opposing expert.

I’ve also found that the best ideas often come from outside the law. A screenwriter can teach us how to build narratives that keep our audience engaged. A body language expert can show how adjustments in posture and gestures can convey confidence and credibility in the courtroom.

This blog is about exploring these kinds of connections. I’m always on the lookout for fresh perspectives that can make our advocacy better, and I want to share those with you here. The goal is to help us all build a better toolkit, elevate our litigation game, and win more cases.