Back at the Coal Face: Selby on Returning to Practice from Academia

When Behan, Rose and Selby set up this blog we were all practitioners turned academics.  Taking practice into the Academy seemed like a good idea.  It is that, though funding problems for schools and their students, on line teaching and learning, and the ever present cry to 'do more with less', thwart the ambitions to adequately prepare today's students for tomorrow's practice.

Some 18 months ago Selby quit his tenured position and headed back to practice, about a quarter century after he'd left it.  Much has changed but the fundamentals of being persuasive, though brightened by the micro chip and touch screens, are as important and as overlooked as always.

The order of what follows reflects the significance of the issue to Selby's practice rebirthing.  Readers should impose their own order upon the material, reflecting upon their experiences.

Perception and Persuasion: Musings on How the First Affects the Second

One of my research assistants dropped by my office this morning so I could sign her time sheet. We spent a few minutes discussing work and life. Knowing that I am not always aware of current cyberspace events that are common knowledge to Millennials, she recommended that I take a couple of minutes and look up the online controversy about the white and gold dress. A quick Google search took me to this New York Times story entitled Is That Dress White and Gold or Blue and Black?

For those of you who were, like me, heretofore unaware of the controversy, it involves the impact of perception on determining the color of a dress in a photograph. Some people believe it is white and gold in dark shadow, and others believe it is blue and black washed out in bright light.

Back in the Saddle Again

Several years ago, when I started this blog along with my good friends Hugh Selby and Charlie Rose, I somewhat contemptuously looked over the landscape of abandoned trial advocacy blogs and resolved that this one would be different. With three of us, I reasoned, there would never be a shortage of material for the blog; in fact, the problem would most likely be having to limit the copious streams of advocacy wisdom that would flow from our computer keyboards. Because we intended the blog to be a community effort, a forum open to everyone in the advocacy teaching community to contribute, we were certain to have a nearly inexhaustible trove of articles and comments. That was the optimistic vision of the blog: a cyberspace version of a perpetual motion writing machine that would practically generate its own content, even as it revolutionized the world of trial advocacy and advocacy teaching.

The Court of Public Opinion and a Court of Law: A Link to a Provocative Article

The Honorable Robert McGahey, of Denver, Colorado, often contributes guest pieces to this blog. He forwarded the following commentary and link about the difference between trying cases in a courtroom and in the "court of public opinion."

Dahlia Lithwick writes on the law and legal issues for Slate, an online magazine.  Her articles are always thoughtful and perceptive and frequently provocative as well.  She recently contributed an article comparing how the public is conditioned to examine legal matters in the public forum versus how such matters are actually examined in the courtroom – and the issues, problems and dangers presented by those differences. I was particularly struck by her discussion of why the presentation of evidence in court using techniques of examination and rules of evidence and procedure offer protections for not just the individual on trial, but for the greater community.  The piece is well worth reading, especially as a reminder of how – and why – the process by which we resolve things in court is a fundamental component of the rule of law. I commend it to you.

Judge McGahey

We Can’t Try the Woody Allen Sex Abuse Case in the Court of Public Opinion
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/02/woody_allen_v_dylan_farrow_the_court_of_public_opinion_is_now_in_session.html