Alaska (AK) Trial CLE Course Catalog

This CLE presentation seeks to provide practitioners with guidance and advice on how to effectively cross-examine a witness at trial. The panel will discuss the goals of cross-examination, share how to best prepare for the examination, and offer practical tips and tricks for ensuring a strong cross-examination of a witness.

Having spent more than twenty-five years as a law firm and in-house litigator and now as a client, Zach McGee provides critical advice for litigators of all levels who are preparing their clients to testify in depositions in civil cases, with a special focus on the unique issues you tend to face when preparing CEOs, directors and other senior executives.  This program also reviews the many benefits of using a deposition prep video program with your clients to help prepare them to testify.

Despite the old saying, facts do not speak for themselves. People must speak for them. Further, humans learn and store information by stories, not by recitation of facts. Juror persuasion happens when the right story is told the right way. Join nationally respected trial consultant Rich Matthews for an exploration of the crucial but often undervalued part that the right witness with the right preparation plays in moving jurors to vote your way.

From the onset, we must think about What Will the Jury See? First, potential evidence must be preserved then the investigation should strike a balance between privilege and documentation. When outside counsel is involved, they should trust but verify the investigation and identify other investigative needs.

The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 went into effect a mere few weeks before a worldwide pandemic unfolded, setting into motion unforeseen challenges and learning curves for the entire bankruptcy court system. This session consists of two mock presentations that will demonstrate the application of technology in the pre-trial practice and trial presentation of a subchapter V virtual trial. Included in these presentations will be virtual depositions and document preparation and organization, as well as the nontechnical challenges these cases can face, such as feasibility, projected-income issues, best practices assuming a nonconsensual plan, and cramdown. During the mock presentations, a team of technology experts will interject real-time, practical tips on the risks, benefits and potential ethical pitfalls of technology use in virtual trials, and much more.

Witness testimony at trial and in depositions is critical to winning. This panel of restructuring/insolvency litigators and expert witnesses will discuss how you prepare your fact and expert witnesses, including how to respond to direct examination, how to respond to personal attacks and lies, how to deal with an aggressive lawyer, how to prep a fact witness versus an expert witness, and how an expert witness should prep an attorney.

As Bankruptcy Courts hold hearings across a variety of remote platforms, how can attorneys and other bankruptcy professionals ensure they are most effectively representing their clients? This expert panel will discuss best practices for appearing remotely, offering tips on preparing witnesses for testimony, presenting an effective “virtual” courtroom presence, and maintaining proper courtroom etiquette in the new normal, and will also address several ethics considerations in our new "Virtual" reality.

This panel will work through real-life scenarios that demonstrate challenges faced by litigants in qualifying valuation witnesses. The panel will also cover strategies and techniques that are crucial to winning the valuation battle. Finally, the panel will discuss the latest developments and trends in valuing assets in bankruptcy.

This session will feature a mock trial of a fraudulent-transfer case demonstrating email, Facebook, Instagram, smartphone, messaging and metadata issues.