Services / Case Strategy & Analysis
An outside perspective on how the case will be heard.
Theme development, case analysis, opening and closing consultation, and in-trial support from a consultant who has spent nearly two decades watching juries from New York to Kansas decide civil, criminal, and capital cases.
New York to Kansas Federal and state venues across the 8th, 9th, and 10th Circuits and the Northeast
Remote and in person Every service offered in the courthouse city, at your office, or on a secure remote platform
Capital cases undertaken Death-eligible matters, including pro bono engagements
ASTC members American Society of Trial Consultants, bound by its Professional Code
Trial teams know their cases better than anyone, and that is the problem. Months or years inside the file make it difficult to hear the story the way a juror will hear it for the first time, in a few days, with no background and a set of attitudes the team has never met. The firm provides that outside ear, informed by research on how people actually process evidence, and turns it into a working strategy: what the case is about in one sentence, which facts carry it, which facts must be neutralized, and how the presentation should be sequenced.
Strategy work can stand alone or follow jury research. It is available for a single session early in a case, for a structured trial-preparation program, and for daily support during trial, in person or remotely.
Pro bono is part of the practice, not a sideline Every year the firm takes on matters where the stakes are as high as they get and the budget is nonexistent: indigent capital defense, wrongful conviction work, and civil rights cases. Those engagements have shaped how we work for paying clients. They demand research designs that produce reliable answers on small samples and short timelines, and they keep the firm connected to the jury pools and defense bars of communities that larger consultancies rarely see.
Grounded in original and continuing research The firm’s principal conducts his own jury research and continues formal academic work in psychology with a forensic emphasis. That means the methods used on your matter are informed by the current peer-reviewed literature on juror decision-making, group deliberation, and persuasion, not by folk wisdom accumulated in the 1990s. It also means the firm can speak the language of Daubert and Frye when research must be defended as evidence.
Insurer bad faith, on either side of the v. The firm has a particular concentration in insurance bad faith and extra-contractual litigation, representing both policyholders and carriers. Those cases turn on how jurors reason about promises, fine print, delay, and corporate decision-making, and on how they translate anger into a number. We know the attitudes that predict which way a panel leans, and we design research to measure them rather than assume them.
What the engagement includes
Case Strategy & Analysis services
Each component can be retained on its own or as part of a broader trial program. Scope, timeline, and budget are set with counsel at the outset and adjusted as the case develops.
Case Analysis and Strategy Sessions
A structured working session with the trial team to take the case apart and rebuild it from the fact-finder’s point of view. We map the decision points a juror will face, identify where the case is vulnerable to the other side’s framing, and settle on a strategy that the rest of the preparation can be organized around.
- Half-day and full-day formats, remote or in person
- Decision-point mapping and issue prioritization
- Early-case, pre-mediation, and pre-trial versions
- Written strategy memorandum
Theme and Narrative Development
The language, sequence, and framing that hold the case together from voir dire through closing. Themes are tested against research where it exists and against the literature on framing and persuasion where it does not. The goal is a story jurors can retell in deliberation, in their own words, to each other.
- Core theme and supporting theme structure
- Frame analysis of the opposing case
- Language testing in focus groups
- Consistency across witnesses, exhibits, and argument
Opening Statement Consultation
Openings decide more than most lawyers like to admit. We work with counsel on structure, sequence, the first two minutes, the handling of bad facts, and the integration of demonstratives, and we rehearse it with feedback drawn from how mock jurors have responded to similar approaches.
- Structure and sequencing
- Primacy and bad-fact handling
- Demonstrative integration
- Rehearsal with recorded feedback
Closing Argument Consultation
A closing framework built around the questions jurors will actually argue about in the deliberation room and the verdict form they will fill out, drawing on the firm’s notes from the trial itself. We identify the moments from the evidence that must be recalled and the instructions that must be explained.
- Verdict-form-driven structure
- Deliberation question anticipation
- Damages argument and anchoring strategy
- Rebuttal planning
In-Trial Support and Shadow Juries
A consultant in the courtroom or on call during trial, watching the jury, tracking what is landing, and advising on adjustments to witness order, examination, and argument. Where the case justifies it, a shadow jury of venue-matched participants attends the trial and is debriefed nightly.
- Daily observation and feedback
- Shadow jury recruitment and nightly debriefs
- Mid-trial adjustments to strategy and presentation
- Remote monitoring options
Insurance Bad Faith Strategy
A concentration of the practice. Bad faith and extra-contractual cases have their own juror psychology, centered on promises, delay, and institutional decision-making, and their own damages dynamics. We have worked these cases for policyholders and for carriers and bring that dual perspective to strategy on either side.
- Policyholder and carrier-side experience
- Claims-handling narrative analysis
- Punitive exposure assessment
- Adjuster and corporate representative preparation
How we work
Strategy that starts with the decision-maker, not the file.
The firm applies a humanist social-psychological framework: jurors are people bringing values, experiences, and reasoning habits into a room, and a trial strategy that respects that will outperform one built only on the elements of the claim.
- Hear the case cold We begin by hearing the case the way a juror will: a short presentation from each side, no background. What is confusing, what is compelling, and what provokes an emotional reaction at first contact tells us where the strategy must focus.
- Map the decision points Every case reduces to a handful of questions a juror must answer. We identify them, decide which are contestable, and decide where the case should spend its persuasive resources.
- Anticipate the other frame The opposing case is analyzed as a story with its own themes and emotional logic. Strategy is built to compete with that story, not merely to rebut its facts.
- Test what can be tested Where research is available, themes and sequences are tested and revised. Where it is not, we rely on the published literature and the firm’s own data and say so.
- Carry it through trial Strategy is only useful if it survives contact with the courtroom. In-trial support keeps the plan honest as the evidence comes in.
Remote
Mock trials, focus groups, witness sessions, and strategy work run on a secure video platform with jury-eligible participants recruited from the actual venue. Remote formats widen the recruiting pool, shorten lead time, and cut travel out of the budget, which matters for pro bono and public defender matters as much as for commercial clients. Deliberations are recorded and observed live, with counsel able to pass questions to the moderator in real time.
In person
Traditional facility-based research in or near the trial venue, in-court jury selection, and on-site witness preparation. In-person work is the default for capital cases, for multi-day mock trials with live witnesses and demonstratives, and whenever counsel wants to sit behind the glass and watch the deliberation unfold. We travel; the firm’s practice has always been regional and national rather than local.
Where we work
From New York to Kansas, in the courtroom and on the screen.
The firm’s practice spans federal and state courts across the 8th, 9th, and 10th Circuits and the Northeast, in civil, criminal, capital, and regulatory matters. We are members of the American Society of Trial Consultants and work within its Professional Code and Practice Guidelines.
Civil litigation
Plaintiff and defense work in commercial, professional liability, personal injury, products, employment, energy, and environmental matters, with a particular concentration in insurer bad faith on both the policyholder and carrier side.
Criminal and capital defense
State and federal criminal matters including death-eligible cases, from pretrial venue and cross-section motions through penalty phase. A substantial share of this work is pro bono or reduced-fee for appointed and institutional defenders.
Regulatory and high-publicity matters
Administrative and enforcement proceedings, and cases tried under media scrutiny where the jury pool’s prior exposure is itself a litigation issue.
Questions counsel ask
Before you retain us.
Yes. We will review the research design and findings, tell you what they can and cannot support, and build strategy from them. If the design was weak, we will say so and suggest targeted follow-up rather than starting over.
Often more useful then than later. Early strategy shapes what discovery looks for and what the depositions build toward. A session in the first months of a case is one of the higher-value engagements the firm offers.
Yes, in civil matters we work for plaintiffs and defendants, and in bad faith litigation for policyholders and carriers. In criminal matters the firm works for the defense.
Yes. The practice has always been regional and national. We travel from New York to Kansas and beyond, and remote daily support is available when a full-time presence is not in the budget.
Discuss a case strategy & analysis engagement. Remote or in person, anywhere the case is.
An initial conversation about the matter, the venue, and the timeline costs nothing. Pro bono and reduced-fee inquiries from appointed and institutional defense counsel are welcome.