Legal proceeding

Steve spent over 30 years as a prosecutor with the Delaware Department of Justice, then went into private practice with the Wilmington law firm of McCarter and English.

Since retiring from the firm, Steve has thrown himself into teaching for NIDA, and this November will serve as a program co-director of our New Jersey trial program.

Now, if Steve's name rings a bell, it's because he's been on the podcast before, and I am delighted to have him back to talk about direct examination.

In this episode, there's a little neuroscience, a bit of rhetorical strategy, and a lot of trial tips and insights that will help you make impact on direct.

Here's our interview.

Well, I'm back here with Steve Wood, and I am so happy to have you back, Steve.

Well done.

Simply put, direct examination... is usually how we win our cases, because it is in direct examination that we introduce evidence that the trier of fact will use to accept our story and give us the verdict that we want.

And I don't know exactly what the attorney was saying, but they were talking about different types of trusts.

And she wanted to know if the type of trust she had, it secured her and her family from lawsuits.

And I told her, well, the type of trust you have is a revocable trust.

And a revocable trust does not protect you from creditor claims.

And we have to come up with a plan, and it's called an asset protection plan.

But it's not a revocable trust.

A revocable trust does not protect you from lawsuits.

It protects you from probate court, okay? Now, there are certain groups of individuals that should listen to this segment maybe more than others.

Well, within the f- next 14 days, by which I mean right now, a large storm is passing over Washington DC, and so if you, uh, happen to hear thunder or, uh, if we happen to have internet, uh, blippage, uh, uh, that is the reason, and I apologize for it.

Um, speaking of heinous villains, um, in the Lawfare LIVE, the Trials and the Tribulations of the Trump Administration series, I wanna call out one, which, um, you know, we have been using a lot of different themes for different, um, um, music and, um, most of the copyright holders have been, uh, very sporting about it.

Taylor Swift did not, uh, uh, raise any issue when we used her music.

Um, Bruce Springsteen did.

All right.

We're gonna wrap.

Folks, this podcast is part of Lawfare's livestream series, Lawfare Live: The Trials and the Tribulations of the Trump Administration.

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