In 3 years, after switching from serving as Managing Trial Attorney at a Fortune 500 insurance company...
Adriana Linares is a law practice consultant and legal technology coach. After several years at two of...
Published: | January 23, 2025 |
Podcast: | New Solo |
Category: | Legal Technology , Solo & Small Practices |
Most of us aren’t born with a powerful courtroom presence and a reputation for extracting crucial information in tense depositions. But we can learn.
Guest Tara-Jane Flynn has been called a “Princess Warrior” and “The Deposition Queen” for her tough, compelling courtroom manner. But the veteran California personal injury litigator says she started out as a shy girl too overwhelmed to give a classroom speech in school.
She taught herself to be strong and to be the strength her clients need. She got involved in theater and public speaking. She guest hosted podcasts. And she developed a strong social media presence. You can, too.
In this episode, you’ll hear valuable tips for winning depositions, learning how to leverage social media, and being the lawyer your client needs to believe in from a Los Angeles attorney at home battling for 8-figure verdicts. Get ready to be inspired.
Questions or ideas about solo and small practices? Drop us a line at [email protected]
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Previous episode, “T.V. Advertising: What to Expect” with guess Conti Moore
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Adriana Linares:
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of New Solo on Legal Talk Network. I’m Adriana Linares I’m your hostess today, my guest is Tara-Jane Flynn. Tara-Jane, thank you so much for taking the time. I know that you’re impacted by what’s going on in the environment locally, but you seem to be okay for now and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. So welcome.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Adriana Linares:
I’m so glad. So you came to me through a friend of the network. Adam Camras is a friend of yours and he said, Adriana, you’ve got to interview Tara-Jane Flynn. She’s amazing. She’s known as the deposition queen or queen of depositions. I’ll get to that in a minute. And she’s really inspiring and wonderful and you should interview her for your podcast. I said, great. I love having strong, powerful and amazing women on the podcast. So welcome and thanks again for taking the time. I know this probably is not the best day to do it, but I appreciate it. I looked at your bio when we first started talking and see that you are born, raised, schooled, educated, everything is California for you, and I wanted you to just give us a little bit of a background how you got to where you are and specifically I saw in your bio that you did some work in Geneva, Switzerland, in getting your education and your experience and I think that’s really interesting. So do you want to add that to what you’re going to tell us?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah, actually I was born in England, but I came here when I was two years old. I immigrated with my parents and we went to Northern California and I got my education at several different public schools, but eventually I ended up going to an all girls school called San Domen. And I think that’s really where everything started for me in terms of getting really serious about my academic career and focused on what kind of life I was going to lead as a professional in the future part of what I did in law school. I went to Berkeley undergrad and then I went to USF law school and that’s where I started working for a non-governmental organization through an internship. And that’s when I went to Geneva and I actually spoke in front of the Human Rights Commission.
Adriana Linares:
Wow. Well given you, well, you must have needed a lot of courage and then furthermore, given you even more courage and definitely boosted what is clearly a very strong personality. One of my favorite things in your bio that I want you to address for us is that it says nicknamed Princess Warrior by a now retired judge for your relentless determination, tenacity, mental agility and courage. God, I love that. Do you mind if I copy and paste that into my bio? Tell us just how you developed this attitude. This, I have a feeling you’re aggressive, but you’re probably not the B word.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah, there’s definitely a difference between being aggressive and being the B word. I would say that I grew up in a tough environment where there was some abuse and it wasn’t just against me, it was against other family members getting in a situation like that, I became very aware that it’s very important to expose abusers to step in. A lot of times you can stop the abuse if you speak up and you’re just courageous. And I think having learned that as a young child when I was trying to protect people that were older than me gave me the courage to continue to do that during my career, I would say I’m much more protective of other people than I am of myself, and that’s probably why I became a lawyer,
Adriana Linares:
That selflessness is such an important thing to have. Did you take any professional training on speaking, like did you go to Toastmasters, did you do debate class help? Give some advice to listeners who maybe are trying to develop that but dunno how to get those skills. I know a lot of it is innate, right? A lot of it, it’s natural, but then so much can be learned. Do you have any advice that you can give us about that?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Absolutely. I was a very shy child, very, very nervous inside, always shaking maybe a little bit even hyper inside. And I had a situation in seventh grade, I believe, where I was talking about population control in China. I was giving a speech in class and I stood up in front of everyone and the only part of the speech I was able to say is population control in China. And then I blanked out, I turned red and I sat down and I had complete performance anxiety. I also was having issues with taking tests that year I was having and performance anxiety again, or a teacher worked with me a lot to help me through it. But the biggest thing is during the summer I went to an acting class and in a play. And when I came back the next year, I was a totally different person and my teacher noticed it.
And so she started recommending that I enter speech contests and I did a speech contest at the school I was at and I won every single category of the speech contest for several schools in the region that had come to compete. I got first place. So then I started competing in speech contests outside of school for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I did things at the legions of honor and in that way I was able to continue to practice speaking. But I would say the most important thing was taking an acting class. And I’ve continued to do that. I went out on my own, I would say in 2016 and I actually went to the School of Acting by John Ruskin. It’s over in the Santa Monica airport, and I took an acting class for about eight months for about five hours a day, a few days a week. And that really helps.
Adriana Linares:
Wow, that’s amazing. I will further add that when I had my first job at one of Florida’s largest law firms, I started going to Toastmasters, which I don’t care where you are in this country, actually in this world, there is a Toastmasters group near you. And that was probably one of the best things I ever, ever, ever did for myself insofar as becoming a better public speaker. And by public speaking, it’s not even giving a talk in front of 600 lawyers at a bar association meeting, it’s just being able to carry on conversation at a dinner table with a bunch of strangers that you don’t know. So I would encourage everyone, especially actually, it doesn’t matter what stage or age you’re in, Toastmasters is such an easy way to get better at communicating and it’s so benign. They’re so nice, they’re so helpful. So if you’ve been listening to this show for a long time, I’ve certainly mentioned that in the past, and this is a great opportunity to remind people that things like acting classes, things like Toastmasters, doesn’t mean that you’re going to go out and start doing auditions for being on tv.
Why not? But it just does give you those skills. Speaking of TV though, Tara-Jane, I wanted to ask you, you mentioned that you had been doing a radio series and that that was helpful to your business and exposure. Can you talk a little bit about that because I’m sure your acting skills that you picked up that gave you that confidence to just also work in a visual way, whether it’s in the Courtroom with your clients, must also have helped you with the radio show.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yes. I was invited to be a co-host a couple of times on Call for Justice, that was a radio show that was set up by a criminal defense attorney. Her name was Melissa. And it was very interesting. We had people call in to the show from all areas and ask questions. I did one of the shows with a spine expert, an orthopedic spine surgeon, and then the other show we did a little bit about female empowerment and ways for females to help themselves in their careers and maybe ways that they have felt stunted in their careers.
Adriana Linares:
I think that’s amazing. And we have had guests in the past who have talked about both radio promotions, radio commercials, and I have had a guest, Conti Moore, who a few years ago was doing, and I think she still does TV commercials, which sound expensive, but she pretty much let us know they’re not as expensive as you think and they are an excellent source obviously, of referrals and potential clients. So something else for those of us to consider that are starting off the new year with a fresh budget for trying to figure out what to do with all those dollars Tar Jane, the litigation world can be interesting. Of course it can be challenging, it can be stressful. Did you always want to do litigation? Did you start transactional? Did you switch to litigation? And talk to us about what being a fierce warrior in the litigation world is like for you today. And again, some advice on how to do that in a way that doesn’t really affect you emotionally. Because I know litigation, especially personal injury work can be very emotional and how to survive through that.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Well, one of the tools that I use is consistency in my process that really helps me. I do similar things every day. I work out every day. I meditate every day. I make sure that I’m properly eating every day. I have a green juice, I get seven and a half hours of sleep. These are all very important things to do so that when I show up to work or I show up for a client, I have my full arsenal of all of my abilities ready and waiting to serve them. I think that’s something that’s really important for people to do. A lot of people promote, don’t get sleep work all the time, and I just don’t believe in that. I believe that I’m better on my feet. I would rather sleep than prepare and read something because I’m better on my feet as a litigator when I can think with a fresh mind and I’m not tired.
So that’s one big thing. Being a litigator sort of came about because I started in asbestos and there’s many defendants in cases that involve asbestos victims. I was on the defense side, it’s a pretty aggressive litigation area, and when you go to the depositions, which are many, there’s usually about 30 to 40 lawyers attending the depositions. And I would go to this court reporting center and I was only in my twenties. I was the youngest person to graduate from my law school. So I started out very young and the attorneys, most of them didn’t want to take the deposition, they didn’t want to take lead. So what they would do is they would put their business cards in a stack and then they would just pull one out of the stack to see who would have to take lead. And I’ve always been a pretty ambitious person, so I just started volunteering in every deposition to take lead, and then I just sort of became the leader of the pack. People started assuming I would take leads. So I was the youngest person not playing solitaire on my computer and I was really into it because I like the spotlight, I like digging, I like finding out information. I think it’s exciting to catch someone in the lie, and that’s sort of how it all started.
Adriana Linares:
Oh, I love that. Another thing I wanted to ask you, just an experience I had with you, you don’t even realize the things that you say that stay stuck in people’s minds, right? You are a very caring attorney, you very much care for your clients. And you told me last night that you have a client that’s going through a tough time and you have to call them and sort of walk them through their day, call me after you’ve walked the dog. Don’t forget to get yourself ready and call me when you’re so obviously a very personal one-on-one approach with your clients. I want you to talk to us about that. But I want you to add an important thing, which is when you and I first started communicating, you said, I always answer my phone, I’ll always answer my phone. So just call me if you need me. And I have a feeling you are being nice to me, but I have a feeling that’s really true with your clients. And so many attorneys never want to answer their phone. They don’t want their clients to have their cell phone. And I totally get that part, but your approach seems to be different. Can you tell us why and why that matters?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah. I’m working with people that are hurt and they’re not only hurt, but they’re feeling invalidated by insurance companies. They’re feeling isolated over time. People in the beginning when they get hurt, their family surrounds them, everybody understands that they’re hurt. But as time progresses, that individual still continues to feel chronic pain and at a certain time they stop wanting to tell people about it, they start feeling like a burden. And as a lawyer, I’m the one person that they can lean on and they can tell the truth to without burdening their other family members. And I’m happy to be that person for them. I am a very loving person and also from my own experience, having been in a dark place before, I know how important it is for somebody just to talk to you, just to talk to you and give you a little sliver of hope or to make you feel that you do count in this world and that you’re not invalidated. It can make all the difference.
Adriana Linares:
That’s really amazing. And I have to say, I’ve been doing this podcast for a long time and that’s not normally how we talk about client and client relationships. And it’s just so refreshing, especially again, right now it’s just a tough time for all of us who have any sort of empathy and sympathy in our hearts. So I think that’s amazing. It sounds like you’re the kind of lawyer I would want to hire. Was that an important part in your development and did you realize at the time that it would be, or were you just like, I got this tough girl, I’ll do this.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
No, actually, like I said before, I was pretty shy person. I’m still a shy person, but what I’ve learned, it’s a fake it till you make it. So I sort of push myself into things that are scary because once I do it, I realize it’s not as scary as I thought. I think that’s very important for people. And the more you do that, the more you gain confidence that if you take a risk, it’s going to work out for you. And you also get a lot of practice doing it. You get a better reputation when you take charge. People look at you as a leader. And since I picked this profession, I knew that the most important thing was to build people’s trust in me, to get people to believe that I have a lot of credibility and that I have a lot of balls, like you say,
Adriana Linares:
And so much courage. Did you ever worry you would fail?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Oh, of course. I worry all the time. I worried this morning before this podcast. I have an innate sense of wanting to be perfect at the things that I do. And it doesn’t mean that the product has to be perfect, but I want to make sure that I’m following some of the rules that I learned in a very interesting book called The Four Agreements. I always want to do my best, and that’s one of the rules in it. I always want to do my best. Be impeccable with your word, don’t assume anything and don’t take things personally. So I try to go through those ideas before I do something that I’m very nervous to do. And also it’s important to be really kind to yourself, to your inner child and sort of self-soothe and just say, you know what, if I just do my best, that’s all I can do and I love myself and it’s going to be okay.
Adriana Linares:
That’s very good advice. I say to people all the time, be kind to your mind because we really are so mean to ourselves. Sometimes you have a lot of methodology that is mental and clearly spiritual and how it affects your spirit, which clearly comes through in how you do your work and how you help your clients. And I think that’s amazing.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I’ve always believe even with the things that are going on right now in Los Angeles, there’s darkness in the world, but there’s also light. And where there’s light, there can be no darkness. And I really, really believe in that. So I always try to make sure that I’m turning the light on inside so that no matter what I’m doing, I always feel like at least I’m combating any kind of negativity that I might face in the world because there is going to be negativity out there. There’s no way to avoid it. But always looking for the silver lining, leaning into things, thinking about what is the opportunity that’s being presented to me right now with this obstacle? And when you start living life that way, things start opening up for you.
Adriana Linares:
Great advice. We’re going to take a quick break, listen to some messages from some sponsors. When we come back, I’m going to ask you about your social media and marketing that you do. That is also very impressive. We’ll be right back. Alright, we’re back with Tara-Jane Flynn. She’s a litigation attorney based in Los Angeles, known as the Deposition Queen. We’re going to get to that in segment number three, but I wanted to ask you about social media. All everybody’s talking about now is ai and I think we’re all a little tired of hearing of AI for the past year, and I want to bring it back to one of the basics when it comes to marketing, and that is social media, which of course for some of us is still scary, hard to find the time, but it’s important to you and you do a lot of it. So can you talk to our attorneys or listeners about social media, how you do it, where you find the time, do you really get clients from it because that’s really what they want to know?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I get a lot of leads from it, but not necessarily clients, but I do have a lot of people that reach out that
Adriana Linares:
Yeah, that’s an important distinction.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yes.
Adriana Linares:
And
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Even after I don’t take their case, we continue to talk. We sort of become Instagram acquaintance friends, so it really helps me reach out to a lot of different people. People reach out to me. A lot of attorneys are looking at my Instagram that are younger attorneys getting some sort of quick tip or trick of the trade. I like recording it for them because I feel like there are so many things that you can learn quickly that you don’t have to go through all that strenuous trying to figure it out for yourself. I can just tell you, I can just give you that trick or tip that I’ve learned because one thing I’ve always done in my career is I’ve worked around really excellent lawyers and I always copied something from each lawyer that I worked around and then I would make it part of my own sort of in my toolbox. Maybe I would then refine it as I got older and I got more experienced, but I always picked up something from another attorney and I think that’s something that I’d like other attorneys to be able to do for me.
Adriana Linares:
I think that’s a great tip. Literally copy paste. Do you see something that’s impressive or helpful or effective copy? Just do you spend a lot of time creating those social media posts because I think that’s where a lot of people have paralysis is it won’t be perfect copy. How do I edit? But I think yours are pretty not edited and they’re pretty quick. And maybe you have the attitude I have about social, which is these things don’t last very long anyway. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just get the information out there. Tell us a little bit about that.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
So a lot of times I’ll just be working and I am aggressive litigator, so I do file motions and I’m constantly trying to figure out a strategy to keep my case in front of the defense attorney be a thorn in their side, so they want to get rid of me more than they want to get rid of the case. And so that’s a tip right there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, be a thorn in their side. So when I write a motion and I am dealing with an issue, then I think about that. And so I’ll just write then and there at my desk record some sort of tip one sort of little tidbit about what I just did. And usually it takes me, I would say, anywhere between eight and 15 minutes to do
Adriana Linares:
It. That’s such good advice because what happens to all of us is that would make a great social media tip. I’ll do it later. And then you never do it or you actually don’t remember what it was. Because as I keep saying to people, my brain storage is full, there’s no more room here. I’d like to get some network attached storage device for my brain. There’s no memory left here. So I think that’s another great tip is if you’re going to start, just start record these small tips, bits, thoughts. You don’t have to edit them. They don’t need background music, they don’t need an introduction. You don’t need a bunch of text on there, just get it out there. You mentioned Instagram. Are you only Instagram or do you also do any of the other platforms?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I just have Instagram and LinkedIn. That’s it. I haven’t tapped into Facebook in a long time. And so yeah, those are the two I use.
Adriana Linares:
When it comes to LinkedIn, do you do a lot on LinkedIn or are you active on LinkedIn or just use it as a place to have a bio and a place to find you?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I don’t really love LinkedIn. I sort of use it to keep connections with people that I’ve worked with a long time ago. Once in a while I’ll go on it, but I don’t really like the format of LinkedIn. It’s just too much information. It’s constantly posting somebody else’s post of something and I get a little bit overwhelmed when I’m on it, but I do love Instagram.
Adriana Linares:
Any other tips on networking and marketing? I mean, clearly you’re very successful and you get on the community. It sounds like you volunteer a lot. You just get out there. And I think that’s another thing that I cannot ever stress enough. Every successful attorney I have ever had on the show or I have talked to in my 25 years of doing this just says networking, networking, networking. But yet every young attorney that I meet says, I got to build a website. I’ve got to start putting ads on Google networking. They just think it’s not going to work. But yet again, sage, after sage wise person after wise person tells us it’s networking. Do you agree?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I think there’s different ways to network. My networking sort of works after a long time. I think I’m more authentic in my networking. I just try to be there for people. So even on Instagram, I see something going on in somebody’s life. I’ll DM them even if I don’t know them, just sort of be there for them, be a beacon of hope if they’re going through a hard time or support them if they’re just starting a new business and they’re nervous. And I get a lot of people that reach back out to me. Just the other day, a female attorney reached out to me on Instagram, asked me for my phone number and asked me if she could run a couple cases by me. And I ended up calling her back after work and we talked for about two hours. I was happy to give her tips and help her work through some of the medical issues that she had in her case, but really being there for her and showing people that we can help each other without getting something in return. Because what I get in return in that situation is I know that I’m helping another person. We’re creating and building a relationship that could last for years.
Adriana Linares:
It’s true. And I’m like that too. I give away a lot of time. I give away a lot of emotion and I never find it a waste of my time.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I actually thrive off of it. I think I would’ve been a really good teacher. So I love mentoring and I love teaching. I love sharing things that I’ve learned. I just have an ocean of knowledge and I just want to let it flow everywhere.
Adriana Linares:
I think I know what you mean. Alright, we’re going to take another break. Our last one, we’ll be right back. We’re going to talk about depositions, how to master depositions. Well, I mean we can’t really do everything in a short time period, but we’re going to do our best. We’ll be right back. All right. I’m back with Tara-Jane Flynn, the princess warrior and the queen of depositions. I feel like you should have a documentary TV show of some sort, Tara-Jane, where you just save the world from everything that’s wrong. But I wanted to ask you about depositions now as you have great experience with them, you have this ocean of knowledge that you want to share. And I don’t even know where to start really, but give me a place to start when it comes to taking better depositions or even listening to depositions, which I think is something maybe we don’t hear about that often. You’re listening and now you’re processing how you’re going to come back into the conversation. So just start somewhere so we have a place to start.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Okay. Well, you have to remember that juries are not lawyers most of the time. Usually lawyers get bounced from a jury. So you’re talking to people that don’t understand how the law works. And I think I approach things with sort of a childlike mind. I look at everything with a fresh mind and I forget all of my years of experience. And what I try to do in depositions is I approach things with a practical and common sense attitude. I use people’s words against them, and I find their words in several different ways. One, what they just said to me, obviously I like to ask the question why if somebody didn’t do something, I ask them why not? Or I ask them to expand on something that they just said. A lot of times you’ll find that people during depositions, they get defensive and they get arrogant.
And especially if you’re dealing with a corporate representative and they’ll start fighting back at you. And then that’s the perfect situation to get in because they talk too much. And I usually write down notes as I am speaking. I’m able to do both at the same time, and then I’ll go through some of the extra things that they just told me that maybe have nothing to do with the case, and I’ll start pressuring them on those points and making them eat their words. So it starts creating an environment where they feel like I’m out leveraging them and I’m able to put them in a place where now I’m running things in the deposition. When I say I use people’s words against them, another thing I do is I take their verified discovery responses and I look through it very carefully before a deposition. I get them to confirm that they have verified all those responses under penalty of perjury because there’s a lot of lawyers out there, especially defense lawyers that are writing answers for their clients and not running those answers really by their clients. And their clients are verifying discovery. So oftentimes you’ll find that the client, the defendant, will sort of get trapped into a box where a defense attorney has come up with an idea that this is a good strategy to go with, that might include a lie that the defendant is not able to keep up with.
Adriana Linares:
How did you learn all this practice?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I dealt with an individual growing up that constantly interrogated me. So I guess I learned some skills that way. The school of hard knocks. Yeah, the school of hard knocks. I was able to think on my feet very quickly just through practice and realizing that it works. Another important thing for depositions is to break things down into steps. I like to ask people, what were you wearing the night before? What did you eat for breakfast? What did you do next? And I break it down into such small steps that I don’t even realize sometimes where I’m headed, but the conclusion that the defendant or the deponent that I’m taking the deposition of wants me to get to might not be there when we get to the end of the path when we’ve taken all those little steps.
Adriana Linares:
So you’re sort of impromptuly, is that a word? What’s the word I’m looking for?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Spontaneously?
Adriana Linares:
Yeah, I guess spontaneously is better. Okay. So you’ve got a plan, but it involves or allows for a lot of spontaneity, which I think a lot of attorneys don’t like to have or think about because they’re so procedural, they’re so methodical, which is interesting because you’re very methodical in other ways. But it sounds like in this case you do have a lot of play in the wheel for spontaneity and it works out for you.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yep, that’s true. And I think I got that as I was working as a criminal prosecutor, as a city attorney in Los Angeles, and during that time I did it voluntarily. And during that time, you get the file about 45 minutes before the trial starts, and so you can’t really prepare very, very well for that. So you really do have to rely on the spontaneity of asking questions at trial that you might not know the answers to. So that helps sort of burst the bubble of thinking that I always needed to know exactly what I was going to ask at a deposition. But on the other side, even though I’ve done several thousand depositions in my life, every time I take a deposition, I write an outline and I over prepare. I know every single word in the file, including the medical records. I just am an over preparer because I always think that I’m going to blank out. I still have that nervousness that I had when I was a kid and I found ways to cope with it by always being over-prepared.
Adriana Linares:
How many cases on average are you carrying?
Tara-Jane Flynn:
It depends. I’ve carried up until 70 cases and I’ve carried as little as eight to 10 cases. The cases I’m working on now are all seven and eight figure cases.
Adriana Linares:
Wow. And you take that much time, even though you said you get enough sleep and do your routines all the time. And are that prepared? That’s impressive.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah. Well, when I was doing more cases, that’s when I was younger and I did wake up a lot earlier when I was younger. I was waking up at five in the morning to work out. I was having to drive down to downtown Los Angeles. I mean, things were just different back then, but also now that I am dictating strategy, I am in charge of all the cases. I’m able to make my own decisions, plus I have a lot of experience. It doesn’t take me eight hours to write emotion anymore. Sometimes it just takes me an hour and a half. I’m able to do things without really relying on resources, just do things from my own mind because of all that practice and experience.
Adriana Linares:
Right. Well, for sure, experience is definitely a huge factor in your success, in your abilities today. I wanted to ask you, are you using AI in any way to help you prepare for depositions or write motions, or are you just using AI in general? I know it’s been a hot topic for the past year or any sort of technology that you want to share.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
I use, there’s something called the Wayback Machine. I use that sort of to see what type of statements corporations have said on their websites in the past that maybe they’re changing. For instance, like a defendant like Lyft, they may have advertised certain things to the public at one point in time and then realized because there were lawsuits that they should change their tune. And so it really is helpful because their party admissions to go back on the way back machine and look at something that they said on their website in a snapshot that that machine has captured and use those words against them. Just like I explained earlier.
Adriana Linares:
Here it comes full circle. For those of you listening, if you haven’t heard of the way back machine, it’s actually been around for tens of years and it’s a service that captures snapshots of websites over time. Sometimes you’ll go, let’s say you want to look at Coca-Cola’s website. It’ll have a snapshot every single day for the past 20 years. Or you might go to the Coca-Cola website and it might only have a snapshot once every five months. So it kind of depends. It’s not a perfect site, but it can certainly be very helpful. And I think it’s really interesting that one of the places that you go in your research, I mean, that’s just diligence. It’s amazing.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Another thing is I take a lot of zoom depots because they’re remote depots since covid, and I like to use the split screen effect and where I show exhibits at the same time that the deponent is speaking and they’re videotaped so they can be used at trial. And so the deponent will be saying it was a fender bender, and on the other side of the screen you see a car completely split in half smashed all the airbags deployed. Those type of things are very effective.
Adriana Linares:
Yes, that sounds very effective and so obvious, right? Yes. This seems obvious, but I can’t imagine that there is not a listener somewhere going, oh, that’s a very good idea. But sometimes the best ideas are the ones that are so obvious. We don’t even think of them until somebody says it, and then you go, copy paste. I’m going to copy paste that
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Idea. And that’s why you have to keep that childlike mentality that every time you approach something, you have to approach it with fresh eyes because then you remember to do the obvious things.
Adriana Linares:
Well, and speaking as a person who is not an attorney but talks to attorneys all day, it’s amazing how many times, just because I work in legal, they’re talking to me as if I am an expert, a paralegal or an attorney of some sort, and I have to remind them. I go, whoa, wait a minute. Talk to me like I’m four because I don’t actually know what you’re saying. And I think a lot of times attorneys, not just me, I’m not a great example because I live in this world, but that’s how they talk to their clients. And we have to be reminded that especially in a world like yours, you really are talking sometimes to the average person, an average citizen who has no exposure to any sort of legal experience. So again, I think that’s really great advice.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Your clients are scared too. They don’t know what’s going on. They don’t understand the process. If a trial gets continued, they’re upset. They think their rights have been stripped. And that’s why it’s really important to keep in constant contact with your clients so that you build that trust and you can explain things to them along the way, not only to protect yourself, but to make that person feel more comfortable when they’re going through the process, because it’s very scary for them.
Adriana Linares:
Yeah. Well, Tara-Jane, I cannot thank you enough for your time, and I do want to make sure, and also thank you for your honesty, and you expressed some things that were clearly very personal. You’re not afraid to talk about it. It’s part of your experience that has clearly made you such an excellent attorney and such a good person. And I think that’s also just so refreshing to hear. We hide a lot as humans, and it’s just really nice. So thank you.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah, thank you. If anyone wants to follow me, my Instagram handle is at Personal Injury California.
Adriana Linares:
That’s right.
Tara-Jane Flynn:
Yeah. And I think I’m going to start actually teaching courses. I’m going to start putting together courses for attorneys so that they can learn some of those tips that I have on my social media so that they can start implementing them into their own litigation practice.
Adriana Linares:
Well, you absolutely should. It’s so helpful. It’s so sought after attorneys, especially young attorneys, but even older attorneys who might be switching career paths or switching disciplines are hungry for that kind of information. I think. Well, when you decide to do that, you make sure and let me know, you have now told us how people can find friend or follow you. It sounds like Instagram is the best way to do that. And I want to thank you again so much for your time and sharing all this information with us, and hope that you and the rest of our friends, family, and circles and networks and everyone else in California gets through all this. Next month we’ll record a new episode. This will be behind us, and hopefully we’ll all have fresh eyes and bright eyes on better days. Thank you for having me. It was my pleasure. Thanks everyone for listening to another episode of New Solo on Legal Talk Network. Hope to see you next month. I’ve
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New Solo |
New Solo covers a diverse range of topics including transitioning from law firm to solo practice, law practice management, and more.