By Don Keenan The Keenan Law Firm (TKLF) is now into our third fellow, Doug Dykes, and he’s been working here for about three months now. He’s an established trial lawyer with his own three-partner practice with more than 20 years’ experience and about that many trials. Fitting into the purpose of the fellowship, he’s […]
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A NEW DAY: HOW TO START
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CHANGES FOR 2018
By Don Keenan Anyone new or old to our revolution knows that we are in constant evolution. For this reason, the below changes that are coming in the New Year should come as no surprise to any of you. The Keenan Trial Blog will become (even more) restricted. For those of you who have not […]
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18 POWER WORDS FOR 2018
By Don Keenan Important notice: The Keenan Law Firm is once again offering a one-year fellowship to a qualified attorney. This will be our fifth fellow and we are excited to take on another lawyer. The position will be for a year’s time and based at our office on the beach in Florida (not Atlanta). […]
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TRYING A CASE WHERE THE JUDGE HAS EXCLUDED “SAFETY” EVIDENCE
By Gregg Luther Several weeks ago, the following post from a state Reptile© member was re-posted on the National Moderators Listserv: “Judge has ruled we cannot ask safety questions even though their experts and the defendant herself have agreed it all is part of the standard of care. Judge has ruled it is irrelevant. Any […]
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THE MEDIATOR; A NEUTRAL?
By Don Keenan These mediators go to great lengths trying to convince everyone that they’re neutral. In fact, one of their national organizations is called something like, “The Association of Neutrals.” So you be the judge… Consider the California No. 2 mediating firm Envision that has listed 20 or more retired judges and 30-plus trial […]
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REPTILE AUTOPSY©: REPTILE© SUPERSTARS — SARAH MATHER & ALEXA PARR
By Michael Peterson, Keenan Law Firm Important notice: The Keenan Law Firm is once again offering a one-year fellowship to a qualified attorney. This will be our fifth fellow and we are excited to take on another lawyer. The position will be for a year’s time and based at our office on the beach (not Atlanta). This will […]
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WHO DOES WHAT AT TRIAL?
By Don Keenan I recently had a blog that pointed out that, for the longest time, I’ve been doing the voir dire and my referring attorney most often does the opening statement. This comment lit up the listservs in a discussion that premised on this approach being “different.” Some of you liked it; some of […]
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EXCLUDING MEDICAL BILLS, PART IV
By Michael Peterson, Keenan Law Firm Notes from Papa Don: The first installment of the new secret sauce blog was sent out last week, “Jury Selection: The Power of Cross Talk.” If you have attended a Keenan Ball College course and did not get this secret sauce blog, please contact William.Entrekin@keenanlawfirm.com. Reminder that the Keenan Law […]
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SYSTEM FAILURE ANALYST
By Don Keenan I’ll keep this simple. The Reptile© within us knows by now that the code for plaintiff’s trial lawyer is liar. Many jurors are convinced that the more we lie the more money we get paid. To them, it’s all tied to the contingency fee. We also know this code entails such ugly […]
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REPTILE© AUTOPSY: REPTILE© SUPERSTAR MICHAEL REITER
By Michael Peterson, Keenan Law Firm Note from Papa Don: Mike is a longstanding faculty member of the Keenan Ball College and Keenan Trial Institute. He also is the moderator of the Reptile Beltway Listserv. This month’s Reptile© Superstar is Michael Reiter, who has been practicing personal injury law with Chasen Boscolo for the past […]
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SHADOW JURIES: A WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME
By Don Keenan There will always be trial lawyers who know little about the forensics of jury selection or interpretation and are willing to pay $25,000 (sometimes even $50K) for a single focus group. These same folks are stupidly enamored with the idea of having a shadow jury defined as one to a dozen laypeople […]
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MEDIATION AND MEDIATORS
By Paul Luvera Update from Papa Don about TKLF Fellowship Program: The Keenan Law Firm fellowship program enters its third year and our third fellow Doug Dykes will complete his year in two weeks, while our fourth fellow Adam Anderson continues for the next six months. Looking ahead, we are pleased to announce MINDY BISH […]
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DISCIPLINE AND EGO
By Don Keenan Let me visit with you about two poisonous toxins that infect many trial lawyers: First is EGO, of which many of us have too much, and second DISCIPLINE, of which most of us don’t have enough. But as you will see they both have the same effect. Let me explain. EGO First […]
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REPTILE© AUTOPSY: REPTILE© SUPERSTAR ANTHONY DIPIETRO
By Michael Peterson, Keenan Law Firm This month’s Reptile© Superstar is Anthony DiPietro. Anthony has been practicing law for 17 years, currently practicing at the Law Office of Anthony T. DiPietro, P.C in Manhattan, New York. His firm specializes in medical malpractice cases. FACTS OF THE CASE This was a wrongful death case. Anthony’s client, […]
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SETTLEMENT CONDITION: SOMEONE WITH AUTHORITY
By Don Keenan The Keenan Law Firm has been using a settlement conditions letter for more than 20 years. We got sick and tired of the games the carriers and Black Hats would play with us, so we simply set out to list some conditions that we would agree to, and that we were mandating them […]
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Stem Cell Therapy in the U.S.: An Attorney Update
By Allan Galbraith, Keenan Law Firm NOTE FROM PAPA DON: With my back injury, I investigated the effectiveness of stem cell therapy, and I learned the ever-increasing use of stem cell for all types of injuries. Thus I asked my senior associate, Allan Galbraith, to write the following research on the status of stem cell […]
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ADR: SUSPENDING DISCOVERY
By Don Keenan For those of you who have attended the Keenan Ball College (KBC) mediation course, you’re familiar with the fact that any successful mediation has accomplished the three C’s: Control, certainty and closure. Let’s examine the certainty requirement first, because it has two purposes; one, to communicate the certainty of your “got to […]
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THE REPTILE© CASE SUCCESS SYSTEM SIMPLIFIED – Amat Victoria Praeparatio
L-R: Adam Anderson, Douglas Dykes, Adam Dougherty, Papa Don, Matt Powell By Douglas Dykes, Keenan Law Firm Fellow 2017-2018 NOTE FROM PAPA DON: When a KLF Fellow finishes their one-year term, they are obligated to write a blog on their experience. So far you have two prior Fellows’ exit blogs that you’ve been able to […]
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REPTILE© AUTOPSY: REPTILE© SUPERSTAR JENNA LABOURR
By Michael Peterson, Keenan Law Firm Jenna M. Labourr is a native of Seattle, Wash. Jenna took the opportunity to attend law school at New England Law | Boston in Massachusetts, but always knew she would return to the Pacific Northwest. While in law school, Jenna was the managing editor of the International Law Journal […]
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SIDE STEP METHOD OF QUESTIONING
By Don Keenan I’ve been using the side step method of questioning for longer than I can remember and I’m always surprised when I lecture about it, most lawyers either don’t know about it or have never considered its power. So let me explain… Virtually the entire trial is a direct question to a witness, […]
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