Rules 6 and 7 are timely, since they come from improvisational theatre and I just got back from four days of intensive improv training at BATS (I highly recommend the training).Rule 6: No scripts.I've written about voir dire scripts before. You're not going to get very much information if you walk the jury through your list of questions. If you have a list of questions, you're not

Okay, those of you who identify themselves as "attorneys" and "Esquires", and anyone else who likes people to know that he has a law degree and is therefore superior: listen up. This one is for you.The fifth Simple Rule for Better Jury Selection is blatantly stolen from and therefore named in honor of Chicago federal public defender Terry MacCarthy, who likes to say, "Talk in a courtroom

I wrote last November about Lethal Generosity in the Legal Profession, my thesis being “that the most generous members of the criminal defense community are the most credible and influential.”I was talking then about sharing information and motions amongst criminal-defense lawyers.But it’s become apparent to me that the principle applies in the online marketing context as well. (Sorry, Scott, we all market ourselves. The questions are: 1)

Comedy tonight (Tuesday, August 18, 2009).For some free entertainment, come to ComedySportz Houston, 901 Town & Country Blvd., at 7:30 to my improv 201 class perform along with a stand-up comedy class.Cash bar (beer and wine).

In conclusion from this post, this post, this post, and this post: Andy Nolen has been disciplined by the State Bar before. He persists in engaging in deceptive advertising. In my opinion, he needs to be removed from what passes in his world for the “practice of law.” Whether they know it or not, his clients are getting screwed. I was willing to leave Andy Nolen be,

Following on from this post, this post, and this post:I can’t swear to it, but I’ve heard that Andy Nolen has never tried a case to a jury. The Harris County Justice Information System, JIMS, doesn’t show a jury trial for Andy Nolen in records of 342 cases going back to 2006.Despite his not trying cases, Andy Nolen has clients that are happy with him. How?

Following on from this post and this post: When I googled Mekisha Murray to find her address and let her know that she’d been the victim of an Andy Nolen false negative review, up popped her Yahoo Local page, with (in addition to the one-star review of the last post) this two-star review from”niecy” on July 30, 2009:seemed ok, but was really interested in her money, what

Following on from this post . . .”Jerry k.” left 31 reviews for Houston lawyers on July 23, 2009: 30 one-star reviews and one five-star review.Guess who got five stars. Yep, James A. “Andy” Nolen.Among the lawyers panned by “jerry k.”: Don Becker (again, twice on this day), Todd Leffler, Dan Corrigan, Doug Durham, Dane and Leslie Johnson, Dennis Slate, Larry Douglas, Dan Gerson, Jeff Purvis, Mekisha

Okay, let’s play “one of these things is not like the other things,” Houston criminal-defense lawyer edition. Ready? John Floyd. Jack Carroll. James A. “Andy” Nolen. Don Becker. Tyler Flood. Wayne Hill. Which of these things just doesn’t belong? If you guessed “Andy Nolen”, you’re right.

We lawyers love to hear ourselves talk. That can be the death of a jury selection. In a good voir dire, the jurors do most of the talking. Even if I can't hear what the lawyer and jurors are saying, I can tell a good voir dire from a bad one by listening, as long as I can tell who is talking. Lawyer talking most of the