Victoria is an attorney-mediator with experience in complex commercial litigation and trial advocacy. She will teach a course called ‘The Art of the Deposition’ at Solo Practice University®.
After a 25-year career in complex commercial litigation and trial work, Victoria Pynchon, author of the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog and IP ADR blog, became a full-time attorney-mediator. Ms. Pynchon received her LL.M. in Conflict Resolution from the prestigious Straus Institute in Malibu, California and her law degree, Order of the Coif, from University of California at Davis King Hall School of Law.
Ms. Pynchon mediates the same type of complex commercial cases she litigated for more than a quarter century with such firms as the Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton; the Los Angeles-based Buchalter Nemer and the San Francisco-based Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft (recently merged with Duane Morris). She is a neutral for the Southern California ADR firm, Judicate West and serves as a mediator on her own specialty ADR panel, Settle It Now Dispute Resolution Services.
Ms. Pynchon’s broad business background gives her commercial mediation practice unusual depth in industry practices, management and finance. She spent her commercial litigation career litigating “bet the company” antitrust, unfair competition, intellectual property and insurance coverage actions. She has also prosecuted and defended nationwide consumer class actions and litigated securities fraud and professional liability actions.
Syllabus
- The Funnel Technique of Questioning
Who, what, when, where, why and how. When you take a deposition, you’re being a news reporter. Open up your direct examination questioning style to get the most information possible with the least amount of effort. What you don’t know can and will hurt you.
- Identifying necessary and helpful witnesses
- Noticing and taking designee depositions: strategy and tactics
- Technology – Live Note and Beyond
- Your relationship with the Court Reporter
- Procedural and Tactical Differences for Party and Third-party depositions
- Maximizing discovery opportunities in time-limited deposition jurisdictions
- Instructing the witness: procedural niceties and psychological strategies
- Handling and Authenticating Documents and Establishing Exceptions to the Hearsay Rule
- Direct examination techniques
- Theory testing
- Cross-examination
- Defense tactics and strategies
- Examining Expert Witnesses
- Identifying party interests to prepare cases for settlement
Maximize and streamline your preliminary discovery to identify the witnesses necessary to prepare your case for trial and settlement.
Plan and prepare for depositions of corporate designees to learn what the corporation knows and tie a ribbon around it before trial.
What you need to know about the use and abuse of deposition technology, including real-time reporting and video-taping of deposition testimony.
How to maximize your home field advantage and minimize damage on your adversary’s turf.
Too few attorneys remember that a third party witness must be examined as if s/he were testifying at the time of trial. Learn the techniques necessary to introduce third party deposition testimony at trial as well as the means of gaining binding admissions from party opponents.
You have four hours to take the deposition of the key witness. What do you do now?
Steal your opposition’s party and non-party witnesses and make them your own. Strategies and tactics for instructing the witness that will help make them your own.
If you can mark an exhibit, authenticate it and establish the business records exception to the hearsay rule, you’ll have accomplished more in your deposition than 90% of the litigators practicing today. Learn it today. Do it tomorrow.
The information gathering session of the deposition is over. Now you want to obtain testimony in an orderly fashion to win a summary judgment motion or box the witness in preparation for trial. Strategies and tactics.
You know what you want to prove but aren’t certain whether you can gather the facts necessary to do so. Learn the strategies and tactics for testing your theories with deposition witnesses – both party and non-party deponents.
It’s fun and it’s easy once you know the rules. And since you’re going to settle 90% of your cases anyway, this is not only your rare Denny Crane moment, it’s also the place where you diminish your opponent’s expectations of success for the purpose of maximizing your client’s most favorable settlement opportunities.
How to deal with obstreperous opposing counsel and how to defend your own deponents to your maximum strategic advantage.
Sure s/he’s a rocket scientist, but you’re in control of the rules of the litigation board game. How to learn and then burn the other side’s expert witnesses.
Few attorneys maximize their opportunity to explore opposing party interests for the purpose of negotiating the best settlement possible. Learn how today and implement your strategy tomorrow.
