ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is a product of the accumulated wisdom of a number of great trial lawyers and teachers that I have worked with during my twenty-plus years with NITA.
Of special mention is Deanne C.
Siemer, who first introduced me to the idea of describing the pretrial litigation process in terms of legal strategy, created a case file designed to teach it, and greatly assisted me with insights about the practice of strategic decision making and with a careful and detailed edit of an early draft of this book. In particular, her “principled” approach to planning for an giving legal advice is transformative in that it shows the lawyer how to be practical and ethical at the same time. Frank D. Rothschild needs special thanks, for his ideas permeate my understanding of how to put a case together, including how to think about a case as an important visual tool for teaching a client, opponent, mediator, and court about the strengths and weaknesses of the case.And finally, I must make special mention of Anthony J. Bocchino, who has contributed enormously to my understanding of the pretrial litigation process. His ideas and insights from my first days of teaching and lawyering, and his contributions to a coauthored NITA book on fact investigation continue to be integral to my understanding of legal strategy in a litigation setting. My research assistant, Michelle Marks, provided invaluable research and editing help.