Are You a Litigator with Talent?

You're a litigator with great talent and ambition, and you know that depositions are the centerpiece of all civil litigation. Trials are rare. Depositions are the new trial, because they are the only place that most witnesses will ever testify. You know that. 

But like every litigator who ever graduated from law school, you weren’t given more than a single lesson’s worth of training on the rules governing depositions. For that matter, you probably had law school professors who never even practiced law. They were in no position to give you insights on how to decide when to take depositions and when to use a different tool for capturing testimony (such as affidavits or confidential statements, usually called EUOs, for examinations under oath).

But now you're actually practicing law. Every minute counts. If you charge by the hour, or if you’re paid a salary, you don't have a single client that will pay you at this point to sit down and develop total mastery over the art and science of depositions. (Dare to dream.) If you work on a contingency basis or on revenue you generate, you definitely can’t afford to spend hundreds or thousands of hours figuring it all out.

You have some deposition experience, maybe even quite a bit, but you want to up your game. You appreciate that there’s more you should know, but without putting together a comprehensive course like this, you’re not sure how best to achieve expert-level skill in taking and defending depositions.

You’re in the right place, whether it’s because you’re….

• A bit frustrated, because you feel like you’re not squeezing every ounce of gain out of your depositions. You have the ability to excel - just not an easy or clear way to gain decades of experience-based knowledge in a short amount of time
• You have a hard time figuring out who to depose. How will each witness help you or hurt you if you depose them? Who is it okay to skip? Who should never be skipped? And how do you know?
• Frustrated because you feel like opposing lawyers may be taking advantage of you, because they sense – or worse, know for sure – that you may not have total mastery over depositions
• A litigator in a competitive environment where hitting expert-level in deposition strategies and tactics could have a huge positive impact on your career
• Working in an environment where others around you cannot or will not share their expertise?

You’re in the right place, and we’re going to explain exactly how Deposition Masterclass: Tips, Tactics, and Techniques will give you the tools, motivation and unparalleled access to knowledge gained from more than 20,000 depositions. There is nothing else like it in existence.

But if you still have any doubts that this is exactly what you need right now, ask yourself a question.

It’s a crucial one. So listen carefully.

The question is: What is the sequence of expanded capabilities that creates the most value for me, and that teaches me the most? Put another way, imagine writing down a list of all the activities you could undertake to expand your skillset as a litigator. Then ask, in what order should you pursue them? What would you put as #1 on your list – the activity to do first above all else to immediately maximize your expertise? 

There is literally nothing you could put in that #1 slot that belongs above “1. Develop a complete mastery in the tips, tactics and strategies of world-class deposition practice.”

In real-life conflicts, those with a superior command of the process almost always win, especially in close contests.

All conflicts are fought in stages, with the battle plan devised by someone with vast expertise and success in prior battles. Litigation, sports, even war, follow this path. A thorough mastery of winning strategies and tactics, and the expert use of them in both offensive and defensive ways, is how conflicts are won.

Generals, coaches, and trial lawyers must be experts first in the development of the plan for rules governing their kind of conflict, above all else.

And there’s just no point in learning how to design a deposition plan, and then implement it, from someone with limited experience. Sometimes the most outwardly-confident instructors are the ones who shouldn’t be teaching others. Confidence without deep experience to back it up risks disaster. You’ve undoubtedly seen ads for seminars for depositions, but have you ever actually run searches in legal databases to see the actual experience level of the seminar leaders? You would probably be shocked.

The process of deciding who to depose, who to skip, how to depose them, and how to deal with obstructive opposing lawyers, can be complicated if you don’t have expert insights on how to understand and deal with each step of the process.

By the end of Deposition Masterclass: Tips, Tactics, and Techniques, you will have gained expert-level mastery.

Meet Jim Garrity

Jim Garrity, the instructor for this course, has taken more than 20,000 depositions, and he’s still going in one of the heaviest civil practices in the country. He’s also the host of the top-ranked 10,000 Deposition Later Podcast, and the author of the best-selling, 450-page practice manual 10,000 Depositions Later: The Premier Litigation Guide for Superior Deposition Practice, 3d. Ed.

There is no greater expert on deposition practice anywhere in the world. His experience and expertise is unheard of. His high-volume multi-state civil practice is and has been a laboratory for deposition strategies and tactics for decades.

He’s fought lawyers from Wall Street, Main Street, in-house counsels, public-interest legal organizations, and federal and state governments. And he’s made it a career habit of frequently experimenting with new tactics to see what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Why do people love Jim Garrity’s books and podcast? Because he has an amazing gift for talking to you in a conversational tone, as if the two of you were longtime friends.

No stunted jargon or technical explanations that require another book or program to understand. In a very chatty, social way, he’ll talk about the things you need to understand and explain why.

One litigator, after going through the course, said, “This is the most amazing course I have ever been through. My anxieties disappeared. I understood everything he said. I would recommend this course to all litigators at any stage of their career."

Having  best-in-class prowess and expertise in every phase of deposition practice.

Understanding the incredible offensive and defensive tactics created by the rules and case law, many of which you’ve never even thought about.

Knowing the “best practices” for each stage of the process – what the nation’s premier litigators do, and exactly how they do it.

Knowing the pitfalls to avoid, including those commonly made by lawyers with even decades of experience. 

Ask yourself the following question:

Why do some litigators who have been practicing for decades still make even fundamental mistakes?

The answers are simple.

Sometimes it’s because they haven’t taken many depositions.

Sometimes, it’s because, respectfully, they were trained by other lawyers who also had limited experience.

Most often, it’s because they’ve never been exposed to high-end insights, strategies, and tactics.

With Deposition Masterclass, you will avoid all these mistakes