Rahul Ravipudi

Panish | Shea | Boyle | Ravipudi LLP

I am a partner at Panish | Shea | Boyle | Ravipudi LLP, an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, and the father of three boys – 16, 13, and 10. I am so lucky to be married to Smitha who is an amazing mother and the CEO of USC Care Medical Group, the physician group of Keck Medicine of USC. My wife understands and appreciates my passion for teaching so much so that she was cool when I worked to schedule PSBR Trial College at the time that best worked for everyone – despite it starting the day after my 20 year wedding anniversary! I made the mistake a while back of asking Smitha what my top five qualities were that made her want to marry me. Much to my surprise and disappointment, my sense of humor did not make the list! She is right, I am not funny, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. I love the Buffalo Bills, “Dad Jokes”, and taking selfies (especially with my Snapchat filters).

Rahul Ravipudi

Fine Tune Your Jury Deselection Strategy

I. PSYCHOLOGY OF DECISION MAKING (10 Minutes)

Overview of key social science concepts to remember for case framing, crafting voir dire questions and developing juror profiles.Topics include defensive attribution, cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, hindsight bias, fundamental attribution error, and the black sheep effect.

II. RELEVANT CALIFORNIA LAW / CCP CODES (5 Minutes)

III. JURY DESELECTION TECHNIQUES (30 Minutes)

Goals of Voir Dire
Identifying Voir Dire Topics
Mini Openings
Attorney Demeanor and Style
Crafting Questionnaires
Voir Dire Questions: Judge and Attorney
Dealing with Time Constraints
Questions / Language to avoid
Challenges for Cause
Batson Wheeler Challenges
Peremptory Challenge Strategy

IV. LIVE JURY SELECTION PREPARATION AND DEMONSTRATION(45 Minutes)

Mock “Day Before” Strategy Session: Rahul will review juror background questionnaires, provide initial ratings and discuss their strategy for questioning.

Mock Voir Dire: Watch a demonstration of mini openings, Rahul’s signature voir dire introduction approach, questioning of mock jurors with real time suggestions/feedback.

Challenges for Cause/Peremptory Demonstration and Interactive Audience Discussion

Rahul Ravipudi

Voir Dire Skills Training: Bring Your Case!

Attendees will meet twice before the session to brainstorm case themes and weaknesses to explore in voir dire.Each participant will be tasked with identifying the top 2-3 concerns they have about their case and develop a voir dire strategy to address those key issues.

During the session participants will briefly roundtable their cases and voir dire strategy during the first hour, then each attorney will spend the remainder of the session practicing their questioning with live mock jurors.

Ravipudi will provide immediate feedback with an opportunity to correct and re-question trying different techniques.

Within the context of real world case patterns you will learn how to:

•Set the stage to encourage honest and open answers

•Ask engaging and relevant questions to maximize the information you receive

•Get quiet jurors to speak out

•Target problem jurors to establish challenges for cause.

•Become more comfortable during jury selection