By Sara Kropf Jury instructions are a key part of any criminal trial. They matter at trial itself since the jury will rely on them to evaluate whether your client is guilty or not. They matter just as much on appeal; problems arising from jury instructions are some of...
By Sara Kropf The government has all sorts of advantages in a criminal case: FBI agents flash a badge and witnesses talk willingly; prosecutors freely use grand jury subpoenas to obtain documents; discovery rules do not require them to turn over all information in...
By Sara Kropf We just finished watching HBO’s The Undoing. Pandemic or not, it’s great television. I'll try not include any plot spoilers in this post, but if you really don’t want to know anything about the show, then you probably want to stop reading now. The show...
By Dan Portnov On Friday, November 8, 2019, Lawrence Hoskins was convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.[1] The jury verdict, delivered on a Friday afternoon in Connecticut, barely made the national news (the bar has been set higher these days), but...
By Dan Portnov I’ll make a confession: I am not a trial attorney. If you need a Johnny Cochran or Benjamin Brafman-type courtroom wizard, I’m not your guy and I never will be. Still… I love trial. I’ve done several and had my moments of glory. It is a rush and...
By: Sara Kropf I’m in trial this week in a white-collar criminal case. Since I couldn't manage to find the time to write a substantive post, I thought I’d write instead about something practical: what I bring with me to court when I’m in trial. Being in trial is a...
By: Sara Kropf Late in the afternoon of September 5, 2018, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared a mistrial in the second trial of Nicholas Slatten. The jury had been deliberating for a remarkable 16 (!) days when it sent a note saying, “we are unable to...
By: Sara Kropf When I saw the title of the recent article in The Atlantic by Lara Bazelon, “What It Takes To Be a Trial Lawyer, If You’re Not a Man,” I couldn’t wait to read it. I’m a trial lawyer. I’m also a woman. Everyone loves to read about themselves, right?...