Dance for Me, Witness

“Some of the most fun you can have in a courtroom is taking an opposing witness who is haughty or arrogant and using him or her as yours.”

–Steven F. Molo

Keep Them Backstage

“The lawyer conducting the cross-examination never wants to give up center stage to the witness.”

–Thomas M. Crisham

May Not Apply Outside the Loop

“True, lawyers cannot remake the facts; but it seems that in Chicago, a criminal case is about the defendant and charges, and not about the famous-lawyer persona. Juries are not dazzled or muscled into verdicts.”

–Jo-Anne Wolfson

More Important than Nunchuks

“As I learned time and again in Uncle Sam’s Army, surprise is probably the most important single tactical element of combat—on the field of battle or in the courtroom. Do not underestimate it.”

–Michael T. Hannafan

Let the Record Show that the Witness is, in Fact, Not Dead

Q: Have you ever been a resident of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery?

A: No.

Q: Have you ever given a contrary statement?

A: Yes.

Opposing Counsel: Your Honor, could we have a sidebar?

–Tornabene v. Paramedic Services of Illinois, Inc., as recounted by Michael J. Morrissey

And That’s Tough to Get Out of Those White Smocks

“I cross-examined a nurse one time and I intended to be all soft and kind and loving hugs, and she started getting snarly with me and arguing and before I knew it there was blood everywhere.”

–Robert A. Clifford

Concentrate, Bobby Fisher

“Cross-examination, if it can be compared to chess, is perhaps the most powerful piece in one’s trial arsenal. Squandering it is closely akin to uselessly sacrificing one’s queen.”

–Walter Jones, Jr.

Guess You Had to be There

“The Panzcko brothers, Pops and Peanuts, were legendary Chicago burglars . . . Panzcko actually had the jury laughing about events, including the robbery of a Catholic rectory on Easter.”

–Marc W. Martin

No Legal Mind Left Behind

“This auditor was killing us . . . I turned to my associate, and I asked him, ‘How did you do in “Accounting for Lawyers?”’

‘I got a C minus,’ he said.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘I did better than that. I got a C plus. So I’d better take this guy.’”

–Michael W. Coffield

Priceless

“The agent who had the instinct to follow the defendant made the cross-examination easy. It was so easy that at the jury instruction conference, the trial judge, Frank McGarr, told me that I should not even charge the federal government for that day of service because the work was too easy and I had too much fun.”

–Gordon B. Nash, Jr.