IndyBar: Can Litigators Learn Anything From The Movies?

By Tracy Betz, Manny Herceg, and Andi Metzel, all with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

“Everything that guy just said is bulls**t. Thank you.” Those immortal words, spoken at a murder trial by none other than Vincent Gambini in My Cousin Vinny echo in every litigator’s ear. Well, every litigator of a certain age at least. We may want to say it. We dream of it. But we rarely come close. It’s just entertainment. It’s not real. But can we actually learn something about trial practice from the movies? As Vinny would say, “Yeah.” For example, the expert witness scene in My Cousin Vinny is iconic, and proves that we can pick up some real lawyering tips from the big screen. And there’s more out there that’s just as potent. We should take heed. After all, that’s how our audience sees the real world. Bite-sized pieces of bytes at a time.

Do you have the resolve to join us at the IndyBar for a fresh dive into new footage the world is viewing about lawyers and lawyering? At the heart of our discussion is an evolving practical problem we litigators face. Our audience’s attention span is almost non-existent. Dr. Gloria Mark published a book called Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity. Relevant here, Dr. Mark studied attention spans over the past two decades. She found what we expected she’d find — erosion. The amount of time we spend (on average) focused on any task on a screen has dwindled from about two and a half minutes in 2004 to about 47 seconds in the last few years. Forty seconds. In the TV series Suits, lawyers take depositions on a whim, go to trial in hours or days after getting the case, and always do it in unwrinkled Brioni suits. In real life, though, that’s not so (other than the outfit maybe for the fashionable ones among us). But what’s real is how our audience perceives lawyering. Our clients, the judges, the clerks, the jury, and everyone else involved expect immediacy. They can only focus on the screen for about 47 seconds, remember? Did we lose you?

So, what will you do? Can you make your point with a GIF? With a slide with only 3 words? With no words? Can you move fluidly (and quickly) from one scene to the other? That’s how we’re becoming wired and that’s why we think this CLE will be helpful.

We pulled some of our favorite scenes from the big and small screen and on October 23 at 12 p.m. at IndyBar HQ, we’ll weave those stories, dramatic (or comedic) deliveries, and more into real-world advice. We look forward to seeing you.•

Tracy Betz is a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. Her primary area of focus is commercial litigation, where she provides strategic and timely advice regarding contract disputes, creditors’ rights and collections, intellectual property, trade secret management, non-compete and securities issues. She is an active member of IndyBar and is a graduate of Bar Leader Class VIII. Betz is also an avid supporter of the IndyBar Foundation as a Distinguished Life Fellow. She received her J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Manny Herceg is a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP where he is sought out to solve business-critical and franchise-threatening issues in state and federal courts across the country. He’s an active IndyBar member and is a graduate of the IndyBar Bar Leader Series. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the IndyBar Foundation. He earned his undergraduate degree from Indiana University and his J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Andi Metzel is a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP and is an experienced litigator and land use attorney and chair of the firm’s Indianapolis Commercial Litigation practice. She focuses her practice on working with developers and defense of companies and individuals in complex business litigation, corporate governance, land use, white-collar, fraud, RICO, and product liability matters in state and federal courts. Metzel is an active member of IndyBar and is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the IndyBar Foundation.