Read Mark Bennett’s 16 Rules of Jury Selection and Become a Better Trial Lawyer

For any criminal lawyer who wants to keep improving their jury selection skills I suggest they read and re-read Mark Bennett’s 16 Rules for Better Jury selection. Mark Bennett is a Houston based criminal lawyer who is also an awesome writer. If you are a criminal lawyer just starting out this is the best article I can suggest to aid you in learning the art of jury selection. If you have been practicing criminal law for years I would strongly recommend you read Bennett’s 16 rules the night before you are going to pick a jury. If you are a prosecutor I would read the 16 rules as  the same logic applies to the prosecution side. I particularly like the Blind Date rule, the Shrink Rule and The Field Trip Rule.

You should also check out Bennett’s recent talk on jury selection. It is great stuff. He makes the great point that trial lawyers can all learn from one another. Nothing disappoints me more than when I meet a veteran criminal lawyer who believes they have so much experience they don’t need to listen to another lawyers ideas on jury selection or any other aspect of advocacy. You can always improve your trial skills no matter how much experience you have.