Clockwise from top left: Peter Riley of Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben, Cynthia McGuinn of Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn and Eugene Brown Jr. of Hinshaw & Culbertson. Image from video Tackling Bad Facts Head-On During Opening Statements
Both plaintiffs lawyer Cynthia McGuinn of Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn and defense lawyer Eugene Brown Jr. of Hinshaw & Culbertson say it's best not to dodge facts that could be seen as bad for your client.
August 17, 2022 at 07:30 AM
6 minute read
Making an opening statement for a plaintiff clearly isn't the same assignment as making one for a defendant. The differences between plaintiff- and defense-side openings were on full display yesterday as plaintiffs lawyer Cynthia McGuinn of Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn and defense lawyer Eugene Brown Jr. of Hinshaw & Culbertson walked through their approach to preparing openings in a mock case used in a recent American Board of Trial Advocates training session.
To get us all on the same page, McGuinn and Brown, who are both based in San Francisco, discussed a training case they tried against each other involving a fictional farmer-turned-popcorn-salesman named Ned Pepper. Pepper claimed a flavoring maker hadn't provided proper warnings and instructions for how to work with a butter flavoring for popcorn, which he claimed caused him to develop a condition called popcorn lung. Footage of the lawyers' respective openings, filmed during a training session in Charleston, South Carolina, will be uploaded shortly to the archive of ABOTA's monthly webinars.
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