Thursday, October 10, 12:30–3:20 p.m. AND Friday, October 11, 12:30–3:10 p.m. ET
| MCLE Credit: | 8.5 |
| Live-Interactive Credit: | 5.0 |
| Pre-recorded Credit: | 3.5 |
| Designation Credit: | 8.5 Trial Practice/Litigation (Designations Information) |
If you want to improve your deposition skills, look no further! This remote program, including on-demand lectures and live-interactive Zoom workshop sessions, is for you.
Deposition skills are essential to all of your cases. They are especially critical to case assessment, preparation for trial, and strategies for settlement. Are you equipped with the right questioning techniques to get the information you need? What is your objective in taking the deposition? Have you adequately prepared your witnesses for what they will experience? Do you know how to properly object to opposing counsel’s questioning?
Whether you have taken many depositions or only a few, coaching throughout this program will help you to develop your skills and confidence, positively impacting the outcome of your cases and enhancing your litigation abilities.
Prior to October 10, participants will be required to watch a series of on-demand lectures, taught by Paul Zwier, on the goals and techniques of depositions, outlining depositions, defending depositions, deposing experts, and using exhibits in depositions.
Then, in live Zoom sessions on October 10 and 11, our experienced faculty of trial lawyers will provide you with useful guidance and best practices through an interactive, hands-on approach. Over the course of two days, you will participate in simulated depositions with your fellow program participants. Each participant will receive immediate coaching on how to improve skills and focus based on methods taught during this course.
The course will cover:
Zoom Requirements: You must have an Internet connection and the ability to use Zoom for this program. Please click here to see Zoom system requirements. A webcam is also required; you cannot dial-in without video to receive MCLE credit for this course.
After registration, you will be sent an email with more details on accessing the program and receiving program materials. You will also receive a coupon code to purchase, at no extra charge, the on-demand deposition lecture series “Fundamentals of Depositions,” which you will need to watch prior to the October 10–11 Zoom sessions.
Please note: Virginia CLE® Online+ Bundle credits and Unlimited Online Passes may NOT be used to register for this program.
Discounts: This program is not eligible for general Virginia CLE® discounts. One discount is available, however, for eligible registrants:
Questions: For more information about this program, please contact the Program Planner, John Rotman, at jrotman@vacle.org.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellation requests for a full refund will be honored until Thursday, September 19, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. Cancellation requests received between Friday, September 20, 2024, and Thursday, October 3, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. will be charged $100. Cancellations made after Thursday, October 3, 2024, are not eligible for refunds.
Inclement Weather Policy and Updates.
MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.
Can’t Attend?
E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.
| 12:40 | Hands-on Deposition Workshop—Lay Witnesses Participants will take turns deposing a fellow participant based on a hypothetical case and receive hands-on instruction in deposing lay witnesses based on the lecture and prepared written materials and feedback from the faculty. |
| 1:55 | Break |
| 2:05 | Hands-on Deposition Workshop—Lay Witnesses (continued) |
| 3:20 | Adjourn |
| 12:30 | Hands-on Deposition Workshop—Exhibits with Depositions Participants will take turns deposing a fellow participant based on a hypothetical case and receive hands-on instruction in deposing lay witnesses based on the lecture and prepared written materials and feedback from the faculty. |
| 1:45 | Break |
| 1:55 | Hands-on Deposition Workshop—Exhibits with Depositions Participants will take turns deposing a fellow participant based on a hypothetical case and receive hands-on instruction in deposing lay witnesses based on the lecture and prepared written materials and feedback from the faculty. |
| 3:10 | Adjourn |
Lauren Ellerman, Frith & Ellerman / Roanoke
Michael Garnier, Garnier & Garnier, PC / Herndon
R. Lee Livingston, Livingston Law Group, PLLC / Charlottesville
Additional Faculty Coaches TBD
Prof. Paul J. Zwier, Emory School of Law (retired) / Atlanta, GA
Lauren Ellerman, Frith & Ellerman / Roanoke
Lauren Ellerman’s practice is focused on Medical Malpractice, Non-Compete Litigation, and Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect. As co-author of How to Beat Your Virginia Non-Compete, Ms. Ellerman is dedicated to working on behalf of Virginia employees and business professionals who are starting new ventures in their careers. She has represented clients with cases related to non-compete agreements, non-solicitation agreements, breach of contract, breach of duty of loyalty, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Ms. Ellerman also represents victims and their families in cases of wrongful death, serious injury, and medical malpractice. She has taught and lectured throughout the state, advising other attorneys on trial skills, discovery, client services, and more. Prior to joining Frith Ellerman & Davis Law Firm, PC, she worked for Sevila, Saunders, Huddleston & White in Leesburg, Virginia, where she focused on commercial litigation, criminal law, and domestic law.
In 2018, Ms. Ellerman was featured in Virginia Living magazine for her work inside and outside the courtroom. In 2016, she became the chair of the Long-Term Care Committee and joined the Board of Virginia Trial Lawyers (VTLA). In 2013 she was named to “Influential Women of Virginia” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. She was also honored as “Young Lawyer of the Year” by the Roanoke Bar Association for her community leadership. In 2015 she received an AV rating from Martindale Hubble. In 2016 she was named a Fellow in the Law by the Virginia Law Foundation and has been the youngest Super Lawyer in Medical Malpractice for the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2016.
Michael Garnier, Garnier & Garnier, PC / Herndon
Michael Garnier is a lifelong Northern Virginia resident whose litigation practice over the past three-and-a-half decades has focused on product liability and personal injury cases. He has handled many jury trials throughout Virginia and, with local counsel, also has participated in product liability cases in more than twenty other states. The diverse clients he has been privileged to represent include elevator companies, top pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, telecommunications industry leaders, car rental companies, hotels, aerospace manufacturers, health care providers, construction equipment vendors, retailers, insurance companies, manufacturers of home appliances and other products, as well as individuals and various small businesses.
More than 40 years ago, during summer clerkships at a law firm, Mr. Garnier knew he wanted to become a trial lawyer. Throughout his college and law school years, he continued to spend each summer honing his skills, helping companies who remain his clients today. After college, he spent a year in Paris studying the international law of nuclear reactor accidents, and then graduated second in his law school class at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law (College of William & Mary). In 1984, he joined the Northern Virginia law firm now known as Garnier & Garnier, PC. From the start, working closely with his father (who was a successful litigator from 1960 until his retirement in 2006), he helped defend cases across the country for leading pharmaceutical manufacturers. Other significant components of Mr. Garnier’s practice involve elevators and escalators, construction equipment, ladders, premises liability, consumer products, and automobile accident litigation on behalf of rental car customers and other drivers. He also has represented various manufacturers in multi-district product liability litigation involving a variety of drugs and medical devices, and has defended lawsuits against architects, aerospace manufacturers, a professional football team, and a wide variety of product manufacturers, retailers, and service providers.
Mr. Garnier joined the D.C. Bar in 1990 to extend the reach of his Virginia-based practice. His youngest brother, Robert, joined the firm in 1992. Garnier & Garnier, PC has served some clients steadily for decades, but the firm also has added new clients—almost entirely through word-of- mouth referrals from other satisfied clients. While many of their corporate clients are the leaders in their fields, Mr. Garnier and his brother Robert also have made themselves available to individual clients needing representation in serious injury cases. One of Mr. Garnier’s favorite aspects of being a trial lawyer is getting to know people from so many different walks of life.
Mr. Garnier is past chair of the Product Liability Committee of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys and has served on that organization’s Board of Directors. He has authored book chapters in American Bar Association publications on product liability, and has written and lectured on other litigation topics.
R. Lee Livingston, Livingston Law Group, PLLC / Charlottesville
Lee Livingston practices civil litigation, personal injury law, medical malpractice, and defamation law at his firm, Livingston Law Group, PLLC. He served as president of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in 2017–2018. He is former chair of the Virginia State Bar Litigation Section Board of Governors and the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board. He is a fellow in the Virginia Law Foundation.
Mr. Livingston teaches Trial Advocacy and Professional Liability Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is co-author of Evidence for the Trial Lawyer, a Matthew-Bender (Lexis) publication. He has served on the Virginia Supreme Court’s Appellate Rules Advisory Committee and Electronic Filing Study Committee, and the Virginia Model Jury Instructions Committee. He is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference and chairs its evidence committee.
Mr. Livingston is listed in Best Lawyers in America and was named Lawyer of the Year—2012 and 2021 Medical Malpractice, and Lawyer of the Year—2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 Personal Injury, Charlottesville, Virginia. He is “AV-preeminent” rated by Martindale Hubbell, and he has been honored for selection by Richmond magazine as a top 100 Virginia “Super Lawyer” and a top 50 “Super Lawyer” in Richmond, Virginia. He was awarded the Professor W. McKinley Smiley Jr. Lighthouse Award by the Southern Trial Lawyers Association in 2019.
Prof. Paul J. Zwier, Emory School of Law (retired) / Atlanta, GA
Paul J. Zwier II is Of Counsel to Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC with offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC. Mr. Zwier is one of the nation’s most distinguished professors of advocacy and skills training. He joined the Emory Law School faculty in 2003, taking on several roles. As director of the Advocacy Training Program, director of Emory’s Program for International Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, and a professor of law, Professor Zwier joined the Emory University Law School faculty from the University of Tennessee Law School. He also teaches evidence, torts, products liability, and an advanced international negotiation seminar. He previously served as professor of law and director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution at the University of Tennessee. Prior to that he taught at the University of Richmond School of Law from 1981 to 1999.
Mr. Zwier has served as former director of Public Education for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and has taught and designed public and in-house skills programs in trial advocacy, appellate advocacy, advocacy in mediation, motion practice, negotiations, legal strategy, e-discovery, supervisory and leadership skills, and expert testimony at deposition and trial for more than 25 years. In 1998, Mr. Zwier received NITA’s Prentice Marshall Award.
His clients benefit from his expert advice on trial strategy, jury analysis, and negotiation and mediation strategy. He consults on a wide variety of disputes and topics including litigation involving bad faith insurance, products liability law, federal civil procedure, evidence law, the False Claims Act, securities fraud, patent litigation, MDLs, and other complex litigation matters. He is also an expert and consultant in the area of international dispute resolution. He has provided consulting services with The Carter Center (TCC), including its work in Israel/Palestine, in Syria, and in Liberia. In 2007 he was part of a TCC delegation working on the conflict in Gaza. In Liberia, his consultations included working with a delegation from Emory’s Institute for Developing Nations (IDN), providing TCC with an assessment of its GBV programming in Liberia, and working with magistrates, judges, and lawyers in building capacity following its civil war. This led to consultation and collaboration with the TCC in its collaboration with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Mr. Zwier has trained judges and lawyers for the international criminal courts, including the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, and ICT-Sierra Leone. He has also lead training for Lawyers Without Borders and NITA, for the governments of Liberia, Tanzania, and in Kenya. He has also taught advocacy skills to international lawyers and judges in Yekaterinburg, Russia; Mexico City, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya; Tbilisi, Georgia; Northern Ireland; Scotland; England; and led seminars in negotiation and dispute resolution for black South African lawyers as part of a State Department program in 1999.
Mr. Zwier is the author of numerous books and articles. He received his JD from Pepperdine University in 1979, LLM from Temple University in 1981, and BA from Calvin College in 1976.
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