How To Own The Courtroom
Transcription
Sari de la Motte here, I specialize in helping attorneys communicate with jurors. In today's video we're going to talk about how to own the courtroom. It all comes down to presence.
There four components of presence. Mind, Body, Space, and Others. Each component is going to help you own the courtroom in terms of presence. But in today's video we're going to focus on the third one, Space.
A few weeks ago we had our opening statement studio here in our studio where I'm filming this video right now. Four attorneys come through the class, work with me all day on Friday, preparing their opening statement, and then on Saturday morning they presented to a mock jury. I was struck as I watched every single one of those four attorneys -not- command the room. Now, what am I talking about when I talk about not command the room? They all appeared as though they were asking, or even begging, permission from the jurors to even be there at all. When they moved from, say, their presentation spot to their visual, they would move in such a timid way as to convey to the jury, "I'm sorry that I have to move right now. Just give me a few minutes to get to a new location."
When I coached the attorneys later we talked about the need to own the space. The first part of owning the space is to bring the space in your awareness. Most of us when we're presenting, whether as an attorney or any type of presenter, we only have a focus that's right in front of us. It's kind of like wearing one of those dog collars that you get at the vet. All you can see is what's right in front of you, and when you're only focusing on the space in front of you, you appear small to the jury. Now, that in itself is a problem because what the jury wants is to know that you've got this. You need to communicate your leadership, like we talked about in the last video, through breathing but part of that is also about the space. You need to increase your awareness of space. When you walk into the courtroom you need to look corner to corner, ceiling to floor, expand your awareness even outside of the walls of the particular courtroom that you're in and you will find that as you increase your awareness of space, that will translate to people around you.
The second way to own the space is to move as though you belong there. One of the things I said to the attorneys in the class a few weeks ago, was, "Imagine that the jury is a bunch of your friends that you've invited for a dinner party. Imagine that one of them asked you for another glass of wine. How would you walk from where you are right now to our imaginary kitchen to grab that glass of wine? Do that now." They moved very purposefully because as they were thinking, "This is my house, my kitchen, I'm going to go get that glass of wine." I said, "That's how you need to move during the opening statement." The courtroom needs to feel as familiar as your home. Most of you would never move like you are moving in the opening statement if you were actually in your home. That's the mindset that you need to have when you're in the courtroom, is that when you move, you move purposefully. And of course when you're moving, make sure you're breathing.
Don't try to fill the silence, or act embarrassed about the silence as you move. Move with purpose, move with grace, keep the space in your awareness and breathe.
Being aware of the space and moving purposefully is going to help you own the courtroom and to have a commanding presence.
There four components of presence. Mind, Body, Space, and Others. Each component is going to help you own the courtroom in terms of presence. But in today's video we're going to focus on the third one, Space.
A few weeks ago we had our opening statement studio here in our studio where I'm filming this video right now. Four attorneys come through the class, work with me all day on Friday, preparing their opening statement, and then on Saturday morning they presented to a mock jury. I was struck as I watched every single one of those four attorneys -not- command the room. Now, what am I talking about when I talk about not command the room? They all appeared as though they were asking, or even begging, permission from the jurors to even be there at all. When they moved from, say, their presentation spot to their visual, they would move in such a timid way as to convey to the jury, "I'm sorry that I have to move right now. Just give me a few minutes to get to a new location."
When I coached the attorneys later we talked about the need to own the space. The first part of owning the space is to bring the space in your awareness. Most of us when we're presenting, whether as an attorney or any type of presenter, we only have a focus that's right in front of us. It's kind of like wearing one of those dog collars that you get at the vet. All you can see is what's right in front of you, and when you're only focusing on the space in front of you, you appear small to the jury. Now, that in itself is a problem because what the jury wants is to know that you've got this. You need to communicate your leadership, like we talked about in the last video, through breathing but part of that is also about the space. You need to increase your awareness of space. When you walk into the courtroom you need to look corner to corner, ceiling to floor, expand your awareness even outside of the walls of the particular courtroom that you're in and you will find that as you increase your awareness of space, that will translate to people around you.
The second way to own the space is to move as though you belong there. One of the things I said to the attorneys in the class a few weeks ago, was, "Imagine that the jury is a bunch of your friends that you've invited for a dinner party. Imagine that one of them asked you for another glass of wine. How would you walk from where you are right now to our imaginary kitchen to grab that glass of wine? Do that now." They moved very purposefully because as they were thinking, "This is my house, my kitchen, I'm going to go get that glass of wine." I said, "That's how you need to move during the opening statement." The courtroom needs to feel as familiar as your home. Most of you would never move like you are moving in the opening statement if you were actually in your home. That's the mindset that you need to have when you're in the courtroom, is that when you move, you move purposefully. And of course when you're moving, make sure you're breathing.
Don't try to fill the silence, or act embarrassed about the silence as you move. Move with purpose, move with grace, keep the space in your awareness and breathe.
Being aware of the space and moving purposefully is going to help you own the courtroom and to have a commanding presence.