NATA Fall Seminar to Focus on Focus Groups
Pre-trial focus groups can help attorneys develop and perfect their cases before presenting to a jury and the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys is giving a crash course on how best to utilize the practice at this year’s fall seminar.
“I don’t think there are very many tools out there that are going to give you as much of an advantage as focus groups will,” Lincoln attorney and seminar program chair Mark Richardson said in an interview with The Daily Record.
Focus groups provide an opportunity to present part or all of your case to the same type of people who will be on your jury, Richardson said.
“You’re having a pretty informal conversation where ideally you’re not there as an advocate for your case, or for your client,” Richardson said. “You’re there to give them as unbiased a view of the facts of your case, and the issues in the case, as you can possibly provide to them. And then see where the conversation goes. See how they react to this factor; see how they react to that factor.”
The goal is to find out what aspects of your case are ready to be heard by a jury and what might still need work.
One of the seminar’s featured speakers is Omaha attorney Matt Lathrop, who utilizes focus groups from the start of a case right up until the night before the trial begins.
“We hope to determine what the important issues are that our potential jurors are going to focus on in deciding the case,” Lathrop said in an interview. “Then we want to see if the focus groups can help us tell our client’s story better.”
Lathrop, alongside Lincoln attorney Sami Schmit, will speak about the nuts and bolts of focus groups — how to create them, how to run them — during the seminar’s morning session.
The afternoon sessions will feature additional topics, including:
• “How Focus Groups Impact Trial” with Omaha attorney Justin High and Minneapolis attorney John Conard
• “We’re Not Buying That Legal Horsh**! – Focus Groups in Rural Communities” with North Platte attorney James Bocott
• “Strategic Advantages: Focus Groups from a Trial Consultant’s Perspective” with Forensic Anthropology Inc. President Jill Holmquist
• “Ethical Concerns and Implications of Focus Groups: A Primer” with Richardson
“I think (focus groups are) underutilized in the Nebraska legal community as it is right now and the more that we can promote it the better trial attorneys we’re going to have in this state,” Richardson said.
The NATA fall seminar will take place at the Scott Conference Center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. next Friday, Sept. 24.
To register to attend — either in person or online — visit bit.ly/3lrAjIo. The cost is $195 for NATA members and $250 for non-members. There is a special cost of $170 for new members.
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