When you’re preparing a case for trial, a great deal of time goes into developing the major themes of your case. Sometimes the case is stunningly complicated, such as in a business dispute [...]
Cogent Legal created plaintiffs' visual presentation of the PG&E; San Bruno fire cases for the key motion for summary judgment brought by defendant PG&E.;
“I need a timeline.” This is how litigators often start in asking for legal graphics. This start to the graphics conversation makes sense because timelines are perhaps the most common [...]
Timelines are probably one of the most common things we create at Cogent Legal for clients in all types of cases. Employment, business and personal injury cases are ideally suited for laying out [...]
I always like to share examples of what I consider powerful graphics to give attorneys ideas on what’s possible to create for use in litigation. This morning, I was struck by a video going [...]
In this blog, we occasionally like to share stories of how legal graphics can change the course of litigation. The following war story comes courtesy of Roger Mead, an accomplished litigator at [...]
One of the things I love about the work we do at Cogent Legal is having what I like to call “play time.” By that I mean time to sit and play with a new design-related app or product [...]
When it comes to construction issues, I feel like the actor in that old ad on TV who says, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” I’m not in the construction field, [...]
This is an abridged version of an article I wrote for the September 2012 issue of the California Labor & Employment Law Review. Reprinted with permission of the State Bar of California and [...]
Generally speaking, there are two ways to prevail at trial: (1) have better evidence and demonstratives than your opponent, and (2) keep your opponent’s evidence out. Cogent Legal worked on a [...]
I have always loved the challenge of figuring out a way to show a large set of information all in one graphic. The undisputed master of high information graphics is Edward Tufte, whom I had the [...]
There’s been a lot of hype about the iPad’s apps for the legal profession. I’m going to add to it with a prediction that may seem far-fetched, but I believe stands a strong chance of coming to [...]
The other day an attorney from the state of Illinois contacted me out of the blue because he had seen my blog and wanted advice on preparing presentations for his jury trial. He asked, “Do you [...]
At a recent seminar I attended, Judge M. Lynn Duryee of the Marin County Superior Court had a great story of an attorney who stood up in opening statement and said, “I’m going to call [...]
In litigation, almost every case will benefit from a timeline that lays out key facts and circumstances in a chronological order. The process of making a timeline can help you, the attorney, [...]
Recently, while creating graphic timelines for clients, I explored new ways to use Adobe InDesign to produce interactive PDFs for these timelines. By “interactive PDF,” I mean a [...]
