John D. North, Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department, will be a panelist at “The Regional Trial Bootcamp” on Monday, November 25, 2024 from 8:45am – 5:00pm at The Westin Mount Laurel. The program, also available for online viewing, will be presented by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education in cooperation with the American College of Trial Lawyers, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Delaware State Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
This one-of-a kind, immersive trial bootcamp will be presented by some of the most experienced and respected trial attorneys and jurists in the region. The program will take attendees through the anatomy of a trial by conducting the full-blown trial of Al Capone for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The speakers will offer demonstrations, presentations and panel discussions – including a critique of the demonstrators’ trial techniques – as they navigate through the trial from opening to closing. Attendees will be eligible for credits in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York, and all will receive Paul Sandler’s best-selling book, “The Art of Persuasion.”
The Setting and Background - Chicago during the 1920s was the gangster capital of the world. It was a city largely controlled by mobsters engaged in bootlegging, gambling and murder. Leaders of the gangs thought nothing of “rubbing out” those who betrayed them, or more likely instructing their minions to accomplish the task. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is the name given to the ghastly murders of six members and a companion of the North Side Chicago Gang on Feb. 14, 1929. On that cold winter morning, two mobsters impersonating police officers in uniform confronted members of the Moran crime gang. The victims, believing they were experiencing a routine police raid, submitted to a line up, faces against a wall, in an unoccupied garage. After the victims surrendered their weapons, the two police impersonators summoned in two companions dressed in overcoats and immediately killed the victims in a hail of gunfire while they faced the wall. News of the massacre stunned not only Chicago, but the entire country. Still, there was never an indictment or trial relating to this crime. Theories abound about who was responsible. Some to this very day say it was Capone. Others point to different perpetrators.
The bootcamp agenda will focus on how the panelists handle the prosecution and defense, including:
- Discussion of Case Analysis, Theory of Case, Professionalism (And The 12 Secrets of Persuasion)
- Opening Statements
- Demonstration of Opening Statements
- Panel Discussion on Openings (narrated by Mr. North)
- Lecture on Direct Examination
- Demonstrations of Direct
- Critique of Direct Panel Discussion
- What Judges Want from Trial Judges
- Presentation on Cross-Examination
- Cross-Examination Demonstrations
- Critique of Cross
- Lecture on Closing
- Demonstration of Closing
- Critique of Closing (moderated by Mr. North)
Mr. North focuses his practice in litigation, with an emphasis on trial practice. He has tried jury and non-jury cases in state and federal courts, including over 75 jury cases to verdict. He is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney. He is the author of the evidence treatise A Trial Lawyer’s Strategic Guide to the New Jersey Rules of Evidence and is a principal author of Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, contributing the chapter in the treatise devoted to Medical Malpractice. He also contributed the chapter on statutory disclosure requirements in Winning Legal Strategies for Construction Law. He has lectured throughout New Jersey on evidence and trial practice.
Additional program information and registration on the NJICLE website.