Services / Jury Selection
Strikes and cause challenges built on evidence, not on a hunch.
Voir dire strategy, supplemental questionnaires, venire research, and in-court support from a consultant who has sat at counsel table in state and federal courtrooms from New York to Alaska.
New York to Alaska 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
Jury selection is a short window with permanent consequences. The firm’s approach is to arrive at it with a plan built from research: a profile of the attitudes and experiences that predict how a juror will receive your case, a question set designed to surface those attitudes within whatever time and format the court allows, and a system for tracking and scoring the panel so that the strike decisions are made on the record you built rather than on impressions formed in the moment.
We work in venues with generous attorney-conducted voir dire and in federal courtrooms where the judge asks a dozen questions and hands you the list. The method adapts to both. We have assisted with death-qualified panels in capital cases and with expedited selections in civil matters where the entire process took an afternoon.
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
Jury Selection 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.
Juror Profiles and Risk Assessment
A research-based profile of the characteristics associated with favorable and unfavorable jurors for this case, drawn from the firm’s own mock trial and survey data, the published literature, and case-specific community attitude research where the budget allows. The profile becomes the backbone of the questionnaire and the voir dire plan.
- Attitude and experience predictors, not demographic stereotypes
- Case-specific weighting of risk factors
- Guidance on which risks are reachable for cause and which require a strike
Voir Dire Design
Question sets and sequencing built to do three things: reveal the attitudes that matter, lay the foundation for cause challenges, and begin introducing case themes in the form of questions. Written for attorney-conducted voir dire, for submission to the court, and for the hybrid formats that many judges now use.
- Attorney-conducted and judge-conducted formats
- Cause challenge foundations and follow-up sequences
- Rehabilitation counters and how to preempt them
- Theme introduction that stays within the rules
Supplemental Juror Questionnaires
Drafting, negotiation support, and analysis of written questionnaires. We design instruments that courts will accept and that produce usable data, then score every returned questionnaire against the case profile so the team walks in with a ranked panel and specific follow-up questions for each prospective juror.
- Instrument drafting and meet-and-confer support
- Overnight scoring and ranking
- Individual follow-up questions and cause challenge notes
- Capital case questionnaires including death qualification items
Venire Research
Lawful, ethical review of prospective jurors’ public information, including social media, public records, and prior litigation, conducted within ASTC guidance and the applicable ethics opinions on juror research. Reported in a form that supports strike decisions without creating problems on the record.
- Public-source review only, no contact with jurors
- Compliance with ABA Formal Opinion 466 and local rules
- Flagging of undisclosed experiences and attitudes
In-Court Jury Selection Assistance
A consultant at counsel table or in the gallery throughout voir dire, tracking responses against the profile, scoring in real time, and advising on cause challenges and peremptory strikes. We also watch the other side’s pattern and help you preserve or defend Batson and J.E.B. issues.
- Real-time tracking and scoring
- Cause and peremptory strike recommendations
- Batson and J.E.B. support
- Seated jury profile delivered before openings
Post-Selection Analysis
Once the jury is seated, a profile of who is in the box: likely leaders, likely holdouts, the experiences and attitudes each juror brought in, and what that means for the order of witnesses, the framing of the opening, and the language of the closing.
- Leadership and influence assessment
- Presentation adjustments for the seated panel
- Shadow jury design where warranted
How we work
Voir dire is measurement under adverse conditions.
Prospective jurors under-report bias, judges rehabilitate them with leading questions, and counsel has minutes to decide. The firm treats selection as a measurement problem and builds the tools to solve it within those constraints.
- Build the profile from data Where the firm has run research on the case, the profile comes directly from it. Where it has not, we draw on the firm’s accumulated data from comparable matters and the peer-reviewed literature. Either way, the profile names attitudes and experiences, not demographic proxies.
- Design for the court you are in Question sets are drafted to the actual format: attorney-conducted, judge-conducted, written questionnaire, or a mix. We prepare the submission to the court and the arguments for why the questions are needed.
- Score everything Questionnaires and oral responses are scored against the profile on a consistent scale. The ranking is a decision aid, not a verdict; it makes sure that when a strike is used on instinct, the team knows what the data said.
- Make cause challenges stick Follow-up sequences are designed to lock in a juror’s own words before the court can rehabilitate. Counter-rehabilitation is planned, not improvised.
- Preserve the record Strike reasons are documented in real time so that a Batson or J.E.B. challenge, from either side, meets a contemporaneous, race-neutral and gender-neutral record.
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.
Fifteen minutes is exactly when preparation matters most. A questionnaire, if the court will allow one, does the heavy lifting before anyone speaks. If not, a tightly sequenced question set that reaches the two or three attitudes that matter most will outperform a general conversation every time.
No. Demographic stereotypes are poor predictors and are, in the case of race and gender, unlawful bases for strikes. The profile is built on attitudes, experiences, and expressed beliefs, and the record we keep reflects that.
Yes. Capital voir dire is a distinct skill, involving individual sequestered questioning, Witherspoon-Witt and Morgan issues, and the interaction between death qualification and guilt-phase attitudes. The firm has done this work, much of it pro bono.
Questionnaire scoring, profile development, and venire research are routinely done remotely. For the courtroom itself, we recommend a consultant in the room, but remote real-time support through counsel’s second chair is available when travel is not possible.
Discuss a jury selection 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.