ERIC OLIVER
Eric Oliver is a specialist in implied and nonverbal communication with more than 24 years’ experience - more than 20 with attorneys. He both trains lawyers and helps trial attorneys prepare and present more receiver-friendly cases. In litigation, he helps lawyers to build case presentation plans that integrate themes, metaphors, visuals, witness and lawyer performance to meet the spoken and unspoken needs of jurors revealed in focus groups and Voir dire.

Beyond a pending Ph.D. in Psychology, he has special training in NeuroLinguistic Programming, indirect suggestion, and hypnosis. He built his skills working in counseling, management, marketing, legal training and consulting for trial.

Eric makes extensive use of focus groups when helping prepare cases for trial or for ADR. The variety of cases he has experience with include: anti-trust and bad faith; transactions and commercial conflicts, products, pharmaceutical and negligent marketing matters; murder and fraud; aviation; premises security; and a host of personal injury, professional and medical negligence trials.

Attorneys he has worked with have succeeded with: well-crafted trial themes and presentations; tripling business in one year; precisely predicting settlement amounts from non-verbal cues alone; winning outside counsel work over longstanding, competing "partnerships"; turning hostile depositions into fertile territory, repeatedly eliciting surprising input; winning motions without speaking a word (yet having the judge refer to Ahearing from both sides); impeaching expert credibility on the stand by nonverbal means alone; turning entrenched meetings and negotiations around; helping witnesses go from performing poorly to Abeyond expectations in two days; and setting statewide precedents with novel forms of closing argument; unprecedented opposition concessions, settlements, and successful verdicts in the first trial of a new area of litigation.

Eric is a regular contributor to The Trial Lawyer Journal, and his writing has appeared in TRIAL, and The American Journal of Family Law. He has contributed to or written three books, including the recently revised Courtroom Power: Communication Strategies for Trial Lawyers first printed in 1994, co-authored with Paul Lisnek. His latest, Facts Can't Speak for Themselves: Reveal the stories that give facts their meaning is now available through NITA. He also maintains quarterly distribution of his company newsletter, News From the Mental Edge.

Eric has trained or spoken to several sections of the ABA, and many state and local bars. He has worked for CLE groups, insurance providers, risk management organizations, general counsel and other corporate groups. He is a regular faculty member of ATLA's National College of Advocacy, and has met with groups as diverse as the ABA's Franchise Forum, to the Inner Circle of Advocates and the International Association of Trial Lawyers.

Eric divides his time between consulting on the preparation and presentation of trials including the selection of the jurors who hear them, with training the effective use of communication skills for individual firms, or legal organizations. You'll find his clients in the nation’s top firms and most dynamic solo practices. He resides with his wife and managing partner, Tess, in the Detroit area.