Win Your Case: How to Present, Persuade, and Prevail--Every Place, Every Time (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: compassionate cross, throwaway gun, ethical anger, Officer Smith, Billy Ray, Officer Jones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spence's cowboy Uncle Slim once said, "You can't get nowhere with a thousand-dollar saddle on a ten-dollar horse." Noted trial lawyer Spence ( How to Argue and Win Every Time) applies this principle to anyone making a case, whether to a jury, a customer or a boss. Tricks and techniques are the high-priced saddle, he says; more important is the person making the case. Thus his method focuses on "the power of being genuine." Even fear, he says, can be used to one's advantage by connecting to the decision maker's own fear. The book first focuses on preparing for the "war" (as Spence calls every case) by discovering this power in oneself. Then it deals with waging the war: improving one's storytelling skills, conducting effective opening and closing statements and using witnesses. He makes a persuasive case for his approach, but his advice is often overwrought and overwritten ("Although we are the same in countless ways, we are, nevertheless, as different from one another as a diamond from rubies, which makes each stone unique, beautiful, and valuable"). Spence's tenets also get lost in his tirade about the injustices of the legal system. It's clear why Spence wins his cases, but he won't necessarily win readers over with this volume. (June 8)
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Review

Praise for How to Argue and Win Every Time
by Gerry Spence, narrated by the author:
"As a course in integrity, love and talking from the heart, this program delivers in style and substance." -AudioFile

"Gerry Spence has become the Socrates of Jackson Hole."-Larry McMurtry

"Gerry Spence is one of America's last true originals--a man who thinks as brilliantly as he lives, who writes as compellingly as he talks, and who practices law as faithfully as most people practice religion."--Dan Rather

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (May 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312338813
• ISBN-13: 978-0312338817
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #302,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I hope few litigators read this book, June 20, 2005

By	ktrmes "ktrmes" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews

Every litigator has heard that you need to tell a story at trial. And most have heard that you need a theme. A lawyer's credibility is important at trial. More than a few, perhaps, have themselves uttered these lines to themselves and to others. But what does it actually mean, and how are we to do it? Even those who have been to trials, actually stood in the well of the courtroom and even won, often don't seem to know. "Runaway jury" they will mutter when they lose. Or what about the famous criminal defense attorney who begins his closing with the stirring: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the state has not satisfied its burden in this case." Not that he didn't commit this brutal bloody murder, but that the state has not satisfied some legalistic opaque formula of weighing. Trials often seem to a test of who can do the least bad job -- if both sides drone out their scripts of openings, not daring to look over the podium at the jurors then who can tell who's doing the better job. Why can't litigators tell their stories convincingly? First, they may not believe their own stories enough. Second, institutional pressures, the "platooning" of responsibilities prevalent in large firms and just simple fear, fear of doing other than the plodding jobs they have seen in court, fear of reaching out and trying to understand the feeling of the decision makers, and their fears may stand in the way. Also, there is ignorance. There are countless ways to do things at trial poorly and a mere handful of people who do them really well. Spence's book addresses the fear, the ignorance and how to be crdible and why. The example sequences of client inteviews, voire dire, direct examinations and crosses are breathtaking particularly if you have sat at trial listening to the direct by your side in a case you helped prepare thinking "what the heck is our guy talking about, I don't understand" (and how will the jurors?) Every trial lawyer should read this, but I hope they don't because it will just make my job harder.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not as great as his other work ..., June 8, 2005

By	G. E. Kugler "Ed Kugler - nomoreBS - Author o... (Big Arm, Montana United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoy Gerry Spence and love his attitude and dedication to the common man. I loved How to Argue and Win Everytime and this began as better than that. But by midway through I felt my expectations were violated as this was billed as not just a courtroom book, which is interesting, but a practical application book. While much of what he says certainly has application anywhere my personal disappointment was in the heavy trial legal application through 75% of the book. If I was a lawyer this would be a superb book - just not exactly what I thought but he has lots to teach us.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons from the master, June 12, 2005

By	Charles Kincade - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Any practicing trial lawyer would benefit from this book. I have tried in excess of eighty jury trials and am constantly on the lookout for means and methods of improvement. Spence's approach is different from any other. His de-emphasis on traditional trial "techniques" favoring instead to focus on knowing one's true self, and recognizing the profound uniqueness of each of us, is the linch-pin of his approach. Only when we truly know ourselves can we hope to know our clients, opponents, witnesses and the decision-maker, be it judge or jury. And whereas most professional advocates have been taught to remain emotionally removed from their cases and causes, Spence suggests that genuine care is required if one is to win consistently. This care must, of course, be channeled and applied thoughtfully. This book contains many examples of Spence's methods applied to different stages of the trial process (voir dire, opening, direct exam, etc.) and to specific fact patterns.

Does it work? The proof is in the pudding. Spence has amassed a string of trial victories, civil and criminal, unmatched by any other contemporary trial attorney. All attorneys should buy and absorb this book. All clients should buy this book and give it to their attorneys.