Essentials of Working with Exhibits at Trial (On Demand Seminar)

A pre-recorded streaming AUDIO replay of the July 2020 webcast, Essentials of Working with Exhibits at Trial.

Whether you are a seasoned criminal trial attorney or a new civil lawyer, it is vital that you have a working understanding of the foundations for getting evidence admitted, or keeping it out. Once the exhibit has been admitted into evidence, it is critical that you understand the essential aspects of effective communication that will enable you to use the exhibit to convey its significance to the judge or jury with the greatest level of clarity and persuasive impact.

This seminar will teach you how to lay the foundations for different types of evidence and how to avoid and respond to the most likely objections from opposing counsel.

Our speaker will discuss the following topics:

• The most important rules of evidence pertaining to the admission of exhibits, including the rules governing authentication, best evidence, and hearsay
• The fundamentals of designing and constructing exhibits for maximum impact
• How to lay the necessary foundation for the admission of your exhibits and respond to your opponent’s most likely objections—and how to successfully object to the exhibits offered by your opponent
• The key sequence of questions for laying the foundation for the admission of every exhibit—and the circumstances under which that familiar litany should be modified
• How to use the process of laying a foundation to impress the judge and the jury with your preparation and your efficiency
• How to ensure that you never compete with your own exhibits for the attention of the jury
• The best and the worst ways to publish the exhibits to the jury
• The most common mistakes made by trial lawyers in presenting and working with exhibits after they have been admitted

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor James J. Duane, Regent University School of Law / Virginia Beach

Professor James Duane teaches at Regent Law School, where he has received the Faculty Excellence Award four times. He has twice taught evidence law as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. During the 2013-14 academic year, he was a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He has received the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the Virginia State Council of Higher Education.

Professor Duane received his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1981, where he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1984.

Professor Duane clerked for the Honorable Michael A. Telesca of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York and the Honorable Ellsworth A. Van Graafeiland on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was senior associate at the law firm of Connors & Vilardo in Buffalo, New York, where he practiced civil litigation and criminal defense.

Professor Duane has taught in the areas of Evidence, Civil Procedure, Trial Practice, and Appellate Advocacy, and has published more than 30 articles in those fields. He is the co-author of Weissenberger’s Federal Evidence, and is a contributing editor of Black’s Law Dictionary. Since 1995, he has been a member of the faculty at the National Trial Advocacy College, conducted annually at the University of Virginia School of Law, and has taught at the National Litigation Academy.

Professor Duane has been interviewed about legal matters on television and radio, including National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and has testified before the Advisory Committee of the United States Judicial Conference on the Federal Rules of Evidence. He has lectured before judges, lawyers, and law professors at conferences and training sessions conducted by Hastings Law School, the College of William and Mary, the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, among others.

Professor Duane is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference of the Virginia Bar Association, and is admitted to practice before the courts of New York and Virginia, as well as numerous federal courts. In the spring of 2008, he gave a talk at Regent Law School about some of the reasons why even innocent criminal suspects should never agree to answer questions from the police, and that video has been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube. He has since written a best-selling book on the same subject, You Have the Right to Reman Innocent.