THE ANATOMY OF A "SUPERSTAR" DEPOSITION
DAVID BOIES VS. BILL GATES IN U.S. VS. MICROSOFT
(presentations of 4 to 6 hours of teaching time)
8:30 - 10:00 a.m. (the 6-hour agenda)
- "Superstar deposer" introduced
- The Grand Unified Theory, part #1
- Civil litigation's most important teachable talent
- Background and core case facts (including very interesting emails)
- First video excerpts (of many throughout the seminar):
- a competent deposer vs. formidable witness
- the "superstar deposer" vs. formidable witness
- Battleships
- The G. U. T. of civil litigation, part #2
- Cross-examiner's laboratory: 7 advantages
10:00 - 10:10 a.m. Break
10:10 - 11:20 a.m.
- The rule re saving "stuff" for surprise at trial
- the rationale
- pre-trial considerations
- at trial considerations
- the exceptions
- Adverse deponent's universe of escapes from "Deceiver!!"
- The rule re leading questions at deposition
- the potential exceptions
11:20 - 11:30 a.m. Break
11:30 - 12:30 p.m
- A deposition Holy Grail: the provable lie
- Encouraging a damaging truth
- The rhetorication rule re adverse deponent's ...
- motives
- knowledge
- considerations & actions
- memory
- emotions
- Noun-epithets and refrains
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 - 2:50 p.m.
- Definition of a truly "great" adverse deposition
- Nearly every deposition-taker's most significant failing
- Firewalling
- interrogatory-like questions
- wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor terms
- enumeration
- looping
2:50 - 3:00 p.m. Break
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
• Whack! ... the difference between a mere booklet of Q&A and a trial tran-script
• Define the uncertain in deponent's answer
• Make the implied in deponent's answer express
• Specify the limits of deponent's answer
• Attack deponent's question-dodging