Friday, October 17, 2025
Beyond Logic: Unlock the Hidden Tools of Trial Advocacy (Psychodrama and Ethos)
This session is led by Rick Friedman, one of the nation’s most respected trial lawyers and author of five influential books on trial practice, and Kirsten Friedman, a former trial lawyer, therapist, and psycho dramatist who helps lawyers and witnesses present their truth in the courtroom with clarity and power.
The morning begins with a focus on practical but often overlooked trial techniques. We will cover three topics that many trial lawyers know little about: how and when to use Evidence Rule 806, strategies for using offers of proof to secure admission of your evidence, and how to use curative instructions not defensively, but as a way to challenge the prosecutor and attack the state’s case. We will also examine the art of objections—why, when, and how to object effectively.
From there, the session moves into more challenging territory: what stands in the way of you becoming the trial lawyer you aspire to be? Drawing on Aristotle’s framework of persuasion—logos (logic), pathos (emotion), and ethos (credibility)—we will consider how trial lawyers often rely heavily on logos, and more recently have turned toward pathos as well. But ethos, the credibility of the advocate, remains the most critical and least developed aspect of persuasion. While most advocacy texts simply caution lawyers not to lose credibility, this program goes further, exploring how ethos can be built, sustained, and projected as the foundation of effective courtroom leadership.
Through discussion and interactive exercises, participants will confront the obstacles that limit their effectiveness in the courtroom and begin to discover strategies for moving around, over, or through them. The program will highlight not only the external techniques of persuasion but also the inner barriers that may keep lawyers from showing up as the advocates they want to be.
Saturday, October 18, 2025
How to Handle News and Media (Ethically)
Josh Hamilton and Louis Fidel have each handled several high-profile cases that garnered considerable media attention, and they have seen police and attorneys use the media in ways that later landed them in hot water. Learn from the experts how to use the media without crossing the ethical line.
Ethics on Trial: In re Sponsel and the Prosecutor's Obligation to Justice
Ben Rundall, currently with the firm Zwillinger Wulkan, was a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Arizona when Maricopa prosecutor April Sponsel decided to charge peaceful protestors as members of a made-up criminal street gang. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a two-year suspension for Sponsel and published an opinion explaining her misdeeds, which Ben will explain in giving guidance to defense attorneys battling unethical prosecutors.
April Sponsel and Prosecutorial Ethics
Ben Rundall, currently with the firm Zwillinger Wulkan, was a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Arizona when Maricopa prosecutor April Sponsel decided to charge peaceful protestors as members of a made-up criminal street gang. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a two-year suspension for Sponsel and published an opinion explaining her misdeeds, which Ben will explain in giving guidance to defense attorneys battling unethical prosecutors.
Annual AACJ Legislative Update
Katie Gipson-McLean (outgoing legislative committee co-chair) and incoming co-chair Pamela Hicks will discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly that came out of the Arizona legislature in 2025, as well as AACJ's role in passing good laws and killing bad bills. They will also cover goals for the upcoming 2026 legislative session.
