Legal Strategy (NITA)

In Legal Strategy, well-known professor, Paul J. Zwier focuses on pre-litigation, transactional, and negotiation processes, and describes each in a way that brings together the basics of each discipline. Zwier describes how once a lawyer determines the end goal the client desires, the lawyer must explore the facts and procedural alternatives most likely to get there. By focusing lawyers in a continual exercise in deliberation on what matters most, Zwier sets forth three steps in legal strategy: fact investigation, client counseling, implementations of the client€s decision. The book€s chapters follow these steps chronologically. Chapter One explores the process of defining the problem and framing the issue from the client. Chapter Two describes techniques for finding facts in addition to those that come from the client. Chapter Three deals with case analysis, developing legal theories, and finding a theme for the case. Chapter Four focuses on the counseling process and explores decision€“making frameworks grounded in the rules of professional responsibility. Chapter Five guides the lawyer through strategic models useful in preparing negotiation or working with a mediator to design a solution that fits the client€s goals. Summary of Contents CHAPTER 1 CLIENT FACTS AS THE FOUNDATION FOR A LEGAL STRATEGY * Client Documents * E-mail * Technology and €œThe Smoking Gun€ * Internet Searches * Client Interviews * Goals of the Client * Conflicting Motivations * An Overall Client Interview Strategy * A €œBucket Bailer€ Approach * Ice Breaking * The Three-Stage Interview * The €œEmotional Deck Clearing€ Stage * The €œProblem Skeleton€ Stage * The €œEarly Theory Verification€ Stage * Client-Supportive Witness Interviews CHAPTER 2 OTHER FACTS TO SHAPE A LEGAL STRATEGY * Documents from Opponents and Third Parties * Corroborating Witnesses * Contrast with Friendly Witnesses * Unfriendly Witnesses * Contrasting Questioning Strategies * Inhibitors and Techniques in Response * Personal Threat * Select A Neutral Location * Prepare An Ice Breaker * Understanding * Perceived Job Threat * Barriers * Role Expectations * Etiquette Barrier * Trauma * Perceived Irrelevance * Greater Need * Time and Money * Forgetting * Questioning and Memory Retrieval * Fixes for Memory Inhibitors * Unwanted Recollection * Planning To Use Other Facilitators CHAPTER 3 CASE ANALYSIS FOR REFINING A STRATEGY * A Litigator€s Paradoxical Roles * Legal Theory * Syllogisms and Legal Interpretation * Paramount v QVC * Developing A Legal Theory * Factual Theory * Time Lines * Story Outlines * Create A Cohesive Persuasive Story Outline * Law Office €œGroup Think€ * Focus Groups for Early Case Analysis * Brainstorming * Good Facts * Bad Facts * Best Facts * Worst Facts * Spin Control * Brainstorming * The Law * Theme * Analogies * A Caveat About Using Analogy * Graphics Help with Reverse Engineering CHAPTER 4 LAWYER ROLES IN STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING: CLIENT COUNSELING * The Client-Centered Approach * Preliminary Observations€" The Conflict in the Relationship * Client Autonomy * Model Code and Model Rules * Predicting Social, Psychological, and Moral Consequences * The Problem of Law Low Balling * Giving The Client The Bad News * Taking Ethical Control of The Case in a Client- Centered Approach * The Client May Want More from The Lawyer * Lawyer as Surrogate Decision Maker * Lawyer as Friend. Lawyer as Listener * Some Underlying Assumptions * Choosing The Right Model for The Right Client Situation * Client-Centered Counseling and The Institutional Client * Focus on The Risk