Although A. La’Verne Edney of Butler Snow and Richard Schoenberger of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger practice on opposite sides of the trial bar, they both agree that opening statements are where you introduce the themes of your case, highlight the good facts for your side and begin to address the bad ones.

Edney, is based in Jackson, Mississippi and primarily handles defense work in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, while Schoenberger, who is based in San Francisco, handles medical malpractice and personal injury cases for plaintiffs. They discussed their respective approaches to opening statements as part of a web presentation sponsored by the ABOTA Foundation this week.