Page 9 - FDCC Deposition Drills

Deposition Drills How to Teach Deposition Skills
How Law Schools Teach Deposition Skills
Most law schools do a poor job teaching deposition skills because most professors don’t actively take depositions. This trend has changed in recent years, with more law schools hiring practicing attorneys to teach pre-trial and trial skills. Even with these seasoned veterans in
the classroom, law school does not lend itself to being a suitable environment for teaching deposition skills. Working off of mock fact patterns, most deposition skills taught in law school focus on the rudimentary skills of taking or defending a deposition which can, frankly, be taught in an afternoon. Law schools do not effectively teach all the ins and outs of depositions, all the do’s and don’ts, all the tricks and traps. They teach you how to take a decent deposition, but far from an effective one. Law schools continue to improve how they teach skills, but they have a long way to go.
Deposition Skills Can Be Taught
Deposition skills, like any skill, can be taught. The process, actually, is quite simple. You analyze what you do in depositions and why you do it. You reflect on your own learning process, mistakes you made, lessons you learned, experiences you had, and how they, collectively, improved your deposition skill set. And then you reduce all that to a process, to action steps, to a list of to dos to prepare and take depositions and you share that with others. I’ve shared my deposition taking process in several of my books. In the process of writing my books, I analyzed what I do, what works for me and what doesn’t, and reduced it to a series of checklists. This process made me focus on how I take depositions, made me aware of where I fell short and forced me to tweak my approach here and there to improve my depositions.
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