Elawvate: The Trial Lawyer Podcast

Jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn built his career on a promise to his late wife and mentor, Cathy Bennett: make her tools accessible to lawyers who couldn't otherwise afford them. That promise became VerdictHub, an AI tool that runs venue-specific surveys using the equivalent of 500 "digital jurors," with results delivered in three days for $3,000. Robert joins Ben Gideon and Rahul Ravipudi to break down when a two-minute voir dire can outperform an hour-long one, why he's reversed course on ju

Every trial training promises the answer. Sharif Gray spent four years attending them all — and discovered the real lesson is that there is no one answer, only the toolkit you build for yourself. A Virginia Military Institute valedictorian and UVA Law graduate, Sharif joined forces with partner Gray Broughton to build a seven-lawyer firm — five former JAG officers, six former prosecutors. He shares how he won a $20 million verdict on a case with no catastrophic physical injury, battled a hostile

Trial strategist and consultant Jessica Brylo built her career by shadowing jury selection pioneer David Ball throughout law school and watching videos of a rare 1996 study in which cameras were placed inside actual jury deliberation rooms. “Give us all the advice and philosophy that you can,” co-host Rahul Ravipudi asks to launch the episode alongside co-host Ben Gideon. “That's a big open question,” she says – but she’s up to the task. Tune in as she shares insights about prehabbing jurors aga

Host Ben Gideon invites co-counsel Meryl Poulin to break down their $6.5 million med-mal verdict on behalf of a client who was paralyzed after a 20-hour delay in surgical care for cauda equina syndrome. With host Rahul Ravipudi moderating the conversation, Ben and Meryl explain why cauda equina syndrome cases are notoriously difficult to win and why they put their client, who has developmental disabilities, on the stand despite these challenges. They wanted the jury to fall in love with him. The

Washington, D.C.-based Gupta Wessler holds the highest win rate among the top five most active firms practicing before the 6-3 conservative U.S. Supreme Court firms. And they’re large, corporate firms “representing corporations that have done bad stuff,” says founder Deepak Gupta. “How do we do that? We do it by appealing – sometimes it's methodologically – to conservative commitments.” In this conversation with hosts Ben Gideon and Rahul Ravipudi, Deepak unpacks how his firm wins and how trial

"Bad is stronger than good" is a widely cited principle in social psychology – and one that trial consultant Bo Fraser has built his jury strategy around. “You're not going to win them with, ‘We're the good guy and here's why’ story,” Bo explains to host Ben Gideon. Bo considered a career in marketing before earning a PhD in social psychology and joining his mother at the consultancy firm she founded, Trial Psychology Institute. Tune in as he delves into “bad vs. good” and other psychological th