Top Highlights

• Kila Baldwin used the opportunity to remark that one of the opposing lawyers had been a jerk early in the case but more recently seemed to be a nice guy. “I don’t care what he is. I have my case to prove,” Specter retorted. The cabin went quiet again. “I think we lawyers think we’re more important to the process than we are. The most important thin...
• We’ve spent a lot of time talking about which types of jurors are best for our clients. I’ve argued that the former conventional wisdom that less educated jurors were best for our clients is no longer true and we are often better off with more educated jurors. My opinion is based predominantly on three concepts: (1) less well educated people have b...
• Sometimes saying nothing is the best policy. Specter had refused to play ball with West Penn Power and its insurers. He would not engage in a game of offer and counter-offer when it came to settling the case. Just because West Penn Power indicated it was willing to raise its offer of $10 million didn’t mean he was obliged to make a move downward. S...
• “Is that fair?” Specter would pose that question, or some form of it, 54 times during the trial. It was no simple quirk of speech. It was a tactic, one tested many times in battle, with good results. The occasion called for its use when cross-examining a reluctant and experienced expert witness.
• Specter found that often a witness who refused to concede completely would agree that a point made by the lawyer was at least “fair,” which he knew translated to a jury in its basic form as “yes.”