The Lawyer Mindset for Deposition Preparation
As a trial lawyer, what is your mindset around deposition preparation? Today, we focus our discussion around that. Lawyers have different mindsets going into deposition preparation. You want to get the most value from every single case but it’s also important to do things using a humanistic approach.
At the end of the day, our mindset should be focused on helping our client as they go through seemingly difficult chapters in their lives. They’re probably going through something horrible, whether that’s related to employment, injury, or a business situation – that’s impacting their life. And as their lawyer, you’re there to help them deal with whatever legal situation they’re in.
In this episode, you will hear:
- The different mindsets lawyers have when approaching deposition
- Selling your case is a disappointing mindset
- The importance of shifting your mindset and using a humanistic approach
- How your 30-minute conversations reflect the value you want to have
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Supporting Resources:
If you have questions or a particularly challenging client preparation, email Elizabeth: elizabeth@larricklawfirm.com.
Episode Credits:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their businesses and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth Larrick: Hello and welcome. It’s Elizabeth, your host for trial lawyer prep. Thank you so much for joining us in this new episode.
It’s going to be pretty short and sweet, and the focus will be mindset, our mindset, right? What is your lawyer mindset around [00:01:00] deposition preparation? And this came up for me here recently, several different locations. There was a listserv conversation that I read about woodshedding the client. There was a presentation that I saw about woodshedding the client.
And then I had a conversation with another lawyer discussing how he prepares clients and what he tells them to do. That’s really kind of what set me on this idea for this. episode because I realize my mindset is different than other folks and I’ve worked significantly hard on understanding what it is it should be and how to help people, right?
If my mind is focused on helping the person and my mindset is that, yes, this is a case and this is something I’m going to make money on, but it’s also an opportunity to help this person in [00:02:00] their life. They’re probably going through something horrible, whatever may be, an employment situation, an injury situation, a business situation.
It’s changing their life and they’re definitely at a place where they don’t want to be in your office having to hire somebody to help them with a legal situation. That’s not always been my mindset. That’s obviously something I had to learn along the way, but once I was attuned to what my mind was thinking about, that also then attuned my actions at what I picked up on, what I heard and what I looked for when I spoke with clients.
In listening to lawyers here recently, I understand why we get in that mindset of this is a case. We’ve got to talk to the adjusters. This is the time where clients need to just basically sell their case. Those are actually words somebody said, well, this is us. What I tell clients is this is the opportunity to sell their case to the adjuster.
They need to sound the best, look the best, do everything they [00:03:00] can to basically sell it to get the most money available. That’s a pretty disappointing mindset. I mean, I walked in to hire somebody and they basically told me it was my job to sell my case, meaning this factual thing that happened to me that changed my life.
I would kind of have a pause and then I’d have a thousand questions. How do I sell myself? A lot of people hate sales. So I, that just seems to spin off into a whole nother level, but I also think people would take that definitely the wrong way. And the other conversation that I heard from this listserv was about woodshedding the client for specific questions that they may get that defense may try to trick them with.
And at the end of the day, there was lots of advice. A lot of it came from the same mindset of your client needs to say exactly what you tell them. And they need to be. selling [00:04:00] the case. That’s their job and deposition is to sell the case. And I quite frankly think that’s your job, right? We’re the advocates here, zealously representing our clients.
Our client’s job is to come in and tell the truth, tell their story, tell their impact, to stand up, to cross exam, to not fall for tricks. That’s a huge shift that we can make if we choose. But, What is up against changing our mindset? Well, it’s the fact that this is our job and as a personal injury, that’s difficult to get out of that mindset because it’s eat which kill.
Well, that’s a lot of lawyers too, but you want to get the most value of every single case. And so you want your clients to do some of that lifting for you. But instead of taking a very, humanistic approach and thinking about it in different terms, like what the jury would be thinking about. If you tried to sell your case to a [00:05:00] jury, they would not be having it one bit.
They would smell you out like the rat that you would be and dump it. So I don’t know why that would work for insurance adjuster because they have the same feelers, spidey sense for that information as well. So this is episodes really more about a question, you know, what is your mindset? When you’re going to get a client ready.
for deposition, what is on your mind and how does that then craft what you say to the client or not say how much time you spend with them or not. But either way, if you’re thinking about it, or if not, I always wonder 30 minutes is generally 30 minutes to an hour is generally about the time that most lawyers spend preparing their clients.
And how does that 30 minute, one hour, how does your conversation reflect the value that you have, or that you want to gain from this file? Don’t [00:06:00] think you’re gaining it from the clients from the file. How does that help? What can we do to change how we think about this? Because if we change how we think about it, we will look at it differently.
We’ll work it up differently and it will be reflected. In the value of the case, a hundred percent. Every time I hear from lawyers that take less cases, that they turn their mindset, it’s not about turning and burning files. It’s about helping people. It’s about talking to juries, getting people to work through this phase of their life.
It changes. And I guarantee you that you get more value out of the files. I’ve not talked to one lawyer said, you know what? It didn’t work. I’m going back the other way. Now, something else may pull somebody back the other way, and it may be, again, a different kind of mindset, but that’s my thought we’ll leave you with for this episode.
What’s your mindset around deposition prep? And also for next episode, we are going to do [00:07:00] a top 22 things out of 2022 that I’ve learned along the way in podcasting and also just in all the endeavors that I have gone through this year. So some of them will be very practical things, some of them will be probably pretty personal things.
But hope that you tune in for next episode. Either way, this episode drops right before two major holidays. Hope that you enjoy that. Take some time off to rest. And recharge. And until next time, thank you.