I’m standing next to my co-presenter (and co-author for this article) Chuck Bennett near a stage at a seminar in 2019. Almost 100 lawyers are in the audience. A lady walks up and says, “Hey, you guys are talking next and I’m about to load your PowerPoint on the computer, but there’s only a couple slides on there. Where’s the rest of your presentation?” I say, “No, that’s it. We’ll be fine.” The lady in charge of the computer looks at us with a nervous smile and says, “OK … but every other speaker has a couple dozen slides or videos.” She turns and walks back to the computer. Chuck looks at me and cracks a little smile. We’ve heard this a hundred times.

Over the last several years, and especially now in the age of COVID-19 where the trend looks more and more like the entire trial or at least some part of it will be streamed online, trial lawyers have been searching for the most cutting-age technology to use in their presentations — as if that is the key to success. Trial presentation firms all across the country have gone on a marketing bonanza to convince lawyers that the prettiest pictures win at trial.