How to think like a lawyer
Facts before feelings. Record before argument.
A lawyer does not win by talking louder. They win by knowing exactly what is true, exactly what was agreed, and exactly what the other side has not said yet. The CEO words, written in law form.
The six laws, in this form
Every claim must balance against evidence of equal weight.
Write the claim on the left, the proof on the right. If the right side is empty, it is an opinion, not a position.
The written word governs the spoken one.
Read the whole document before you react to one line. Read what is missing as carefully as what is there.
Nothing is a fact until it is verified twice.
Confirm dates, names, numbers and sources against an original. Assume your memory is a draft.
Answer the question asked, in the order asked, and stop.
State the position, the support, the limit. Volunteer nothing you were not asked for.
Disclose early what will be discovered later.
Name the weakness in your own case first. It costs you a sentence instead of the case.
Argue the other side until you can win it.
Build the strongest version of the opposing position, then answer that one.
Daily moves
- ◦ Build a timeline before an argument. Dates settle more disputes than adjectives.
- ◦ Separate what happened from what it means. Never mix them in the same sentence.
- ◦ Put every agreement in writing the same day, in plain words, and send a copy.
- ◦ When emotional, delay the response by one night. Nothing true expires overnight.
Bring it to the coach
Ask the QUUNIX coach with your real situation. It answers from this material and names the law it is using.
- > Turn my situation into a claim-and-evidence table.
- > What would the other side say about this, at their strongest?
- > Which of my statements here is opinion pretending to be fact?