Writing Techniques for Winning Cases

Lawyers often mistake forceful advocacy with belittling the other side’s case, exaggerating their own case, and berating opposing counsel. Not only are these and similar tactics professionally irresponsible, they also annoy judges.

In Writing Techniques for Winning Cases, Gary Kinder emphasizes the importance of ethics in writing a persuasive brief and shows lawyers how to make judges want to decide for them, how to shape a case for impact, how to get the judge’s attention, how to present a case quickly and cleanly, how to capture a judge’s imagination, and how to create arguments no opponent can deny.

Mr. Kinder will teach you how to . . .

• set a winning tone in your opening sentence
• become the “fair advocate” judges rely upon
• avoid unethical slurs that judges despise
• focus your writing with a theme
• introduce your client to the judge
• respond to “Rambo”
• tell the judge a compelling story
• spot the weaknesses in your opponent’s case
• sway judges with ideas “Rambo” could never imagine
• compose clear, concise sentences
• be zealous without being unethical
• build a bulletproof argument
• draft a brief in 21 minutes

Gary Kinder offers a unique blend of talents. He is a highly acclaimed, best-selling author of narrative nonfiction, the same writing you put into a crucial fact statement. An inspiring speaker and natural teacher, he is a lawyer who understands the challenges you face every time you sit down to write. Not only does he write evocatively and persuasively, he can also explain how good writing works and why. He also mixes humor to make his presentation memorable and enjoyable.

Mr. Kinder developed his first course in 1988 to help lawyers make their writing more accessible and streamlined. Within months he was presenting the program to Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles and to other national firms. Today, Mr. Kinder teaches lawyers around the country how to do what he does so well: write precisely, vividly, and memorably. His program for litigators has evolved into an all-day presentation of advanced writing techniques that is one of the most highly recommended CLEs in the country.

Mr. Kinder's latest book, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, spent nearly three months on the New York Times - Bestsellers List. The review in the New York Times Book Review concluded: “Gary Kinder conns his literary vessel admirably, in fluent command of fascinating detail, judicial ramifications, and a disparate crew. The author writes beautifully – historical and technological reporting of a high order, as suspenseful and deft about the doomed steamer as the salvage vessels. Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is a 24-carat sea classic.”

A second review in the New York Times called Kinder’s book “spellbinding.” Think what he can teach you about how to keep a judge’s attention.

His in-house clientele includes: The Boeing Company, Bingham McCutchen, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Jones Day, KMZ Rosenman, King & Spalding LLP, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Littler Mendelson, McDermott Will & Emery, Microsoft, National City Bank, The Ninth Circuit, PG&E Corporation, Paul Hastings, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, Starbucks, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, WilmerHale, and Winston & Strawn LLP.

$510 General Public
$425 ABA Members
$275 Young Lawyers Division Members
$275 Law Student Division Members

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