Senior Client Success Advisor Adam Bloomberg sits down with Chris Dominic, Senior Jury Consulting Advisor at IMS, to discuss insights from Chris’s upcoming CLE presentation, Command the Courtroom: Mastering Speech, Credibility, and Persuasion for the Modern Jury.
This engaging conversation explores how today’s jurors differ from those of the past - and why trial attorneys must evolve their courtroom presence to remain effective. Drawing from decades of trial experience, Chris shares research-backed strategies for building trust, enhancing delivery, and connecting more powerfully with juries in high-stakes litigation.
Adam Bloomberg: Welcome to the IMS Insights podcast where the nation's leading experts in litigation trends share their insights. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Adam Bloomberg from IMS Legal Strategies. Today we're speaking about an upcoming CLE, which is sponsored by the New Orleans Bar Association and the American Society of Trial Consultants. That CLE is entitled "Command the Courtroom, Mastering Speech, Credibility and Persuasion for the Modern Jury" and it'll be on May 29th at noon in New Orleans. And today I am speaking with the presenter of that CLE, Chris Dominic, who is a Senior Strategy and Jury Consulting advisor here at IMS. You may know about his over 2 decades of practice working with trial teams on some of the nation's highest stakes trials. You may not know he has an advanced degree in speech communication. And one of Chris's specialties in his consulting practice, besides early case strategy, is speech and presentation work. Welcome, Chris.
Chris Dominic: Thanks, Adam.
Adam Bloomberg: Well, it's about that time of year when we're getting ready for the summer and it's time for another ASTC annual meeting. I've noticed there's a lot of interest around this topic. Why do you think the New Orleans Bar and the ASTC want to explore this topic of how to reach jurors?
Chris Dominic: Yeah, I think the reason why it's an interesting subject for people is because we've got an interesting combination of things happening right now. One thing is trials are more rare, but they're still very important. And so that means that public speaking experience really isn't as common. Also, it's not taught as much in the schools. It's not even as common in law school anymore that you're being taught anything in terms of proper public speaking advocacy, that sort of thing. So the idea that you've got not, it's kind of a supply and demand thing. There is really a great reason to learn more about how public speaking today with modern audiences can be effective to trialers who really need it and really want to know, even if they're a great public speaker already, how can I adapt to modern audiences? And if you don't have a lot of formal training, maybe you'll be able to pick up a few tips from the presentation.
Adam Bloomberg: Now, I couldn't help noticing the use of the term modern jury. I'm curious, is that just some new fancy phrase we've got or. I'm not sure, but it seems to imply that there's something different about today's jury over juries in the past. How about a little more on that?
Chris Dominic: Yeah, sure. Over the last 7 to 10 years, there's just been a lot of things that have happened that have shifted a lot of public attitudes. And so it's changed the nature of a lot of the juries that we have. And it's only natural that some of the attorneys using the knowledge that they had coming up and then reapplying that knowledge are surprised sometimes to notice that, oh, hey, why isn't this getting the same effect that it used to? Well, that's because the juries have changed a couple things. One of them is massive trusts in institutions, the government, corporations, all upside down compared to what they were a few decades ago. There's just several things that have changed significantly where people have now large friend groups that are online more than they might have, for example, in a group. So interpersonal dynamics with juries are different. The content they're consuming is curated, it's edited, it's smooth, it's slick. So there's a real premium on being able to speak and being able to communicate in such a way that you can be interesting, you can be effective, your message will stick with people. There's just it'll be important to be able to get that information to people quickly so you can maintain their interest. And that's a challenge in itself sometimes with modern juries.
Adam Bloomberg: OK, I see. So then how does the content of the presentation address the challenge? Or, or maybe a better question is, how can you solve for the challenges presented by the modern jury?
Chris Dominic: Yeah, well, I think it comes down to this. I'm going to argue some very specific speech techniques, but I'm also going to talk a little bit about how we deal with the content of this as well. We're going to basically take into consideration the fact that there's a phenomenon called motivated reasoning that's at play with our juries, and I'm going to talk about that and explain how to use it. And then we're going to talk about how you use framing to help shape your story in a way that you may not have done in terms of the structure before. And then, of course, we're going to talk about delivery, because delivery is the piece that I think gets missed a lot. You really do have to get up and practice these things. And how do you do it the right way?
Adam Bloomberg: Well, it sounds like a fantastic presentation. I'll be curious to hear the postgame report. And by the way, I hope you get to enjoy some beignets at Cafe du Monde when you're down there.
Chris Dominic: I do too. Thanks, Adam.
Adam Bloomberg: Thank you to our guests for speaking with us today. To discover how the IMS team can help give your case an edge, check out imslegal.com or shoot us an e-mail at Contact Us at imslegal.com. IMS has served trusted law firms and corporations worldwide for more than 30 years and over 65,000 cases. As a strategic partner for the full case life cycle, our integrated teams provide specialized advisory support, expert witness services, litigation consulting, visual advocacy, and presentation technology to elevate strategies and protect hard earned reputations. Learn more at imslegal.com.
