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ETP Trial Team Recognized For Their Victory In Record Breaking Case

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$535 million judgment deemed largest ever in Dallas-Fort Worth

Today, the trial team of Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox LLP (LTPC), and jury consulting firm, Bloom Strategic Consulting, Inc. are being recognized for their outstanding work in the 2014 Enterprise Transfer Partners (ETP) vs. Enterprise Products Partners case where a jury awarded Dallas-based ETP more than $535 million dollars in damages in a dispute with Houston pipeline company, Enterprise, over an attempted partnership that went wrong.

The multi million-dollar judgment has been recognized by the National Law Journal as the largest verdict in Texas in 2014 and the third largest jury verdict in the U.S. in 2014. In addition, VerdictSearch.com, a leading provider of verdict and settlement research, said the judgement is the largest ever in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The groundbreaking case examined how two businesses can be involved in a legally binding partnership even when there is no official partnership agreement and when one of the parties claims it never intended for the joint venture to be official.

According to Jason Bloom, M.A., president of Bloom Strategic Consulting, one of the key factors that played a major role in the success of the trial team was the selection of the jury.

“Finding a jury that would accept the existence of a partnership without a written contract and convincing them that a company’s conduct could be more revealing about its business intentions than a written agreement were major challenges for us,” Bloom said. “By holding and gathering information from our mock jury study, developing an effective trial strategy and going through witness preparation process, our team was able prepare LTPC’s attorneys and plan for all factors that could effect this case.”

Bloom Strategic Consulting, Inc. is a Dallas based jury consulting firm that specializes in trial strategy, witness communications training, and jury selection. Jason Bloom, who holds close to 20 years of jury consulting experience, established Bloom Strategic Consulting, Inc. in 2007. In addition to trial work, the firm conducts dozens of mock jury studies each year and becomes involved in some of the most high stakes and high profile matters in the U.S. Past clients have included Oprah Winfrey and Roger Clemens. He and his consulting team apply their vast experience and insights toward building success stories for the clients, both in and out of the courtroom.

Congrats to Jamil Alibhai, Michael McCabe, and the entire trial team from Munck, Wilson, Madala on their $59M jury verdict in a theft of trade secrets trial in the EDTX, Sherman Division.

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Congrats to Jamil Alibhai, Michael McCabe, and the entire trial team from Munck, Wilson, Madala on their $59M jury verdict in a theft of trade secrets trial in the EDTX, Sherman Division. These fine professionals worked tirelessly to make sure the jury got this one right. It was both a pleasure and a privilege to play a role in their huge success. Click here to read more

Congrats to Van Beckwith, Mike Calhoon & the Baker Botts trial team on their total defense win today.

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Perry Mason Moment Halts Moncrief $1.37 Billion Gazprom Suit

(Bloomberg) — The case of the doctored document ended Moncrief Oil International’s $1.37 billion lawsuit Monday over a scrapped joint venture with Russia’s OAO Gazprom.

Moncrief claimed Gazprom backed out of a deal for rights to develop a natural gas field in Siberia, sabotaged the business agreement and stole its trade secrets. But a key piece of evidence the U.S. company relied on was revealed as a fake in the midst of a trial. Click to read more

 

November 19, 2012, TX Bar Journal by Harry Jones, Jason Bloom & Emily McDonald – Teaching Witnesses To Help The Jury

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Teaching Witnesses to Help the Jury

By Harry Jones, Jason Bloom and Emily McDonald All Articles

Texas Lawyer

November 19, 2012

Litigators must educate witnesses about effective courtroom communication so the witnesses can articulate a detailed and convincing story for jurors. Witness preparation must begin with understanding the audience, include what the witness legitimately can expect to accomplish during testimony and involve rehearsal of key communication skills.

No. 1: Simulate the trial experience during witness preparation. A lawyer on a shoestring budget can conduct an effective simulation. Aesthetic alterations to a conference room, such as lining up chairs to resemble a jury box, quickly set the scene for the witness. Office staff can fill the chairs to make the experience more authentic. Practicing direct and cross-examination within this environment helps the witness and attorney alike by rehearsing in a more representative environment.

Jurors have the same fundamental needs and fears that people have in everyday life: needs for inclusion and acceptance and fears of rejection and embarrassment. Click Here To Read More

 

September 17, 2012, TX Bar Journal by Harry Jones, Jason Bloom, & Emily McDonald – How to Help Jurors Render a Favorable Decision

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How to Help Jurors Render a Favorable Decision

By Harry Jones, Jason Bloom and Emily McDonald

Texas Lawyer

September 17, 2012

The rationale for almost every jury verdict can fit on one side of a 3 x 5 notecard. “The company was not fair,” or “The plaintiff was deceptive.” Yet, lawyers spend dozens, even hundreds of hours addressing irrelevancies. The modern juror, inundated by information, craves simple truths. Here are some that trial lawyers should bear in mind.

There is no one recipe for a great trial team. Sincerity, a passion for the case, organization, consistency and a commonsense story are a good start. These low-tech attributes win cases and should remain the lawyer’s principal tools.

Attorneys should resist the urge to overuse flashy technology and graphics. Unlike the actors who play attorneys on the big screen, counsel doesn’t have the luxury of Hollywood make-up or second takes. Also, they should refuse the temptation to complicate the story.

Litigators must distill the case down to the essential facts. Counsel’s goal is clarity — in voir dire, opening statements, witness preparation and closing arguments. They should anticipate jurors’ questions; the best lawyers answer questions jurors are asking themselves.

Simplicity is key. Jurors hear what they understand; they do not understand all they hear. When polled, jurors seldom complain that lawyers made the trial too simple.

The good witness is consistent. That means his deposition testimony and his trial testimony should cohere. His verbal and nonverbal signals should agree. His emotions should remain steady throughout direct and cross-examinations. Each witness must know the case theme and deliver clear testimony to support it. This will allow counsel to show the jury how to connect the dots.  Click Here To Read More

Alison Bennett interviewed by Pam Baker in Coming Soon: Brains… Brains… Juries Can Read Your Brain!

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Using brain scans to evaluate motive and intent of the accused in court sounds like something straight out of a science fiction tale. Yet here it is in a courtroom near you. And this new technology is steadily moving closer to becoming a routine consideration in the business world too.

Brain scans produce very revealing data. Neuroscience, in essence, is perfecting the art of mind reading to an almost terrifying degree of accuracy. And businesses are already scrambling to use the results in as many ways as possible.

“Neuroscientific data has been admitted as evidence in over one hundred criminal trials now, and has been cited in at least one U. S. Supreme Court case,” says Alison K. Bennett, M.S., senior litigation consultant at Bloom Strategic Consulting, a firm that helps lawyers construct winning trial and litigation strategies.

The Supreme Court case to which she refers is Justice Breyer’s citation of neuroscience research in his videogame dissent in the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assoc. case. Breyer wrote, “[C]utting-edge neuroscience has shown that ‘virtual violence in video game playing results in those neural patterns that are considered characteristic for aggressive cognition and behavior.’” For that reason and others, Breyer thought that the legislators’ conclusion (that the videogames in question could harm children) should be upheld. Read more…