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GREAT Adverse Depositions: Principles & Principal Technique
Taking high-quality adverse depositions is the most important teachable litigation skill. Taking a high-quality adverse deposition requires the conscientious application of an integrated set of logical cross-examination rules, the very set of rules that law schools should have offered to their students in a full-semester course, and litigation law firms should have taught their newbies (and their partners) … but never, ever did! Thus, mediocre adverse depositions abound, while high-quality ones are a rarity. This program wastes no time on entry-level wisdom, code chatter, idiosyncratic war stories, or tired maxims. This program teaches how to take adverse depositions the right way: as an intellectually rigorous discipline. (Note: This is a 120-minute version of a customary 690-minute program; thus, choices had to be made re what to include/omit.)
• Civil Litigation §101: Best Case Theory
• “Battleships”: the indispensable checklist of recurring Q&A
• Four nearly-everybody-agrees deposition rules
• The “Grand Unified Theory” of deposition cross-examination
• Discovery depositions vs. evidentiary depositions
• When to save impeachment for trial and when to use in deposition
• “Whack!” defined & demonstrated in a high-profile cross-examination
• When to ask leading questions in deposition
• Seven crucial advantages: deposition cross-examiner vs. trial cross-examiner
Robert Musante, Esq.
Robert is the country’s foremost teacher of deposition cross-examination. He has taught the logic essential to taking great adverse depositions – of fact witnesses and experts – to more than 50,000 litigators in 44 states. He has made in-house presentations to the attorneys-general of 11 states and to the partners and associates of 100+ litigation law firms. For 16 years, 1984 thru 1999, he taught civil trial advocacy at the University of California, Berkeley Law School. He has been teaching CLE since 1993 and has crafted many presentations such as:
- Attacking a “Mt. Olympus” Expert’s Opinion at Deposition & Trial
- Attacking the Liar’s Best Lies: “I don’t know,” “I don’t remember,” & “I do remember”
- The Anatomy of a “Superstar” Deposition: David Boies v. Bill Gates in US v. Microsoft
- Deposing the Artful Dodger: Six Cross-Examiners vs. Bill Clinton
- Depositions Done Right! “Best Lawyer in America” vs. Donald Trump
- And more
