by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The new lawyer at Spohrer Wilner Maxwell & Matthews wrote the book on cross examination... really.
Roger Dodd, a well-known trial attorney and author, lecturer and consultant on cross examination, is of counsel to the firm. Over a 30-year legal career, Dodd has worked to refine a skill that should be paramount to trial attorneys. His co-authored book, “Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques,” is the best selling title ever published by the Lexis-Nexis publishing company.
Dodd has filled thousands of pages and classrooms explaining the fineries of cross-examination. But the underlying goal is simple: get opponents to damage their own cases.
“The most convincing testimony for your side comes from the other side,” said Dodd. “Get the other side to admit facts that they don’t want to and you’ll see the look from the judge and jury that they don’t need to hear anything else. You will notice that you start winning cases when that happens.”
Dodd sees cross examination as mining for facts. Successful trial lawyers know where to dig and how deep to go.
That calls for preparation. Dozens, maybe hundreds of hours of research, investigation and preparation are necessary to steer a witness. Part of the secret to Dodd’s success lies in the fact that he’s never had a problem finding motivation to put in that work, he said.
“Fear of looking stupid is a great motivator,” he said.
That’s a likely scenario for the unprepared attorney that enters the courtroom against a skilled litigator, said Dodd. He first felt the fear in Valdosta, Ga., where he took a case to trial 30 days after leaving law school.
Three decades later, that insecurity still keeps Dodd late in the library. And, it’s still the reason he carries a full briefcase home.
“People talk about being motivated by this unending desire to advance their skills and the profession. That never really resonated with me,” he said. “Wanting to get better might get you up, but it’s not going to keep you up.”
That first burglary trial in Valdosta led to a career that has so far tallied trials in the triple digits. Most of those trials have been handled through his Valdosta practice. Dodd said his working relationship with Spohrer, Wilner partner Bob Spohrer helped convince him to split time in Jacksonville.
But Spohrer can’t claim all the credit. Dodd’s lecture tours have taken him across the country and he’s had many offers to relocate. In the end, it wasn’t money or firm prestige that was the deciding factor.
It was commute time.
The length of morning and evening commutes topped Dodd’s list of relocation criteria. His Plaza at Berkman Marina address allows Dodd to commute on foot. Life is too short to spend hours a day inside a car, he reasons.
“I sat down and analyzed how much life I have left. If you’re spending two hours a day in a car, that’s a full 14 percent of your life you burned through sitting in traffic,” he said. “I worked the math out for airplanes too. I’m not fun, but I’m very detailed.”
Not fun likely describes the feeling of looking out from the witness box to see Dodd staring back as opposing counsel. But Dodd said effective cross examinations rarely feature the verbal pyrotechnics portrayed by Hollywood.
No matter how skillful the litigator, verbal slight of hand rarely induces the tearful courtroom confession. Dodd thinks successful cross examinations are distinguished by the attorney’s capacity to listen.
“Johnny Carson said once the hardest thing about doing an interview is listening, because you’re loading the next question. It’s the same thing in cross examination,” said Dodd.