This book attempts to describe the multi-faceted relationship between communication and the practice of law. Specifically our focus will be on the ways in which communication, whether informative or persuasive, is central to successful legal practice.

Legal practice and communication interact in numerous ways. Indeed, it would be unusual for a thoughtful observer to deny the importance to attorneys of professional communication skill. In this book, we’ll examine four general units.

The initial section includes four introductory chapters The first chapter presents a survey of the field of legal communication. The second and third chapters deal with legal communication research and legal communication theory, respectively. Legal listening is the topic of the fourth chapter.

The second section of the book addresses pre-trial dimensions of trials. One chapter covers legal interviewing, while the topic of chapter six is legal negotiation.

The focus of this book centers on trial practice. Separate chapters analyze the role of communication in opening statements, closing statements, direct examination, cross-examination, judicial communication, and jury selection and deliberations

The final section of this book is devoted to special topics in legal communication. Chapter thirteen involves the applications of video in law, while chapter fourteen assesses legal advertising. The final two chapters deal with future trends in legal communication, and the ethical dimensions of legal communication.