Mastering the Art of Closing Arguments: Insights from ‘Kick-Ass Closings’ by Michael Waddington

Hi, this is Tim Bleecker, I’m the managing partner of Bleecker and Topon, and I’m here with my colleague Michael Waddington. I want to talk about a book that came out that you wrote. It’s an Amazon bestseller since the time it was launched. It’s flying off the shelves. It’s doing incredibly well online.

It’s called Kick-Ass Closings. And I love the name, Mike. The Kick-Ass Closings. You go right in there for the kill. I’ve got the book here.

I’ve got it all tabbed out. I’ve got it highlighted. And what this book is, it is a book that I am shocked almost wasn’t published a decade ago. And it’s a no-kidding in-the-trenches, not ivory towers book on how to conduct some of the best closing arguments in trial that you can imagine. And so, if you are an attorney out there, you got to read this book.

I mean, it’s it’s a game-changer just in terms of how it lays out step-by-step in how to create a closing argument. So, Mike, again, thank you for putting the book out. Tell me a little bit about your inspiration for creating Kick-Ass Closings and and what effect it’s had on attorneys or even yourself since you published it. Well, Tim, the closing argument is my favorite part of the trial. But it’s one of those things that they teach in law school in theory.

They they they kind of minimize it. And the reason is most law professors aren’t trial attorneys, and they haven’t done trials of any trials in decades. And there’s no book out there that actually teaches you and shows you actual real closing arguments. There is no book that actually has modern, relevant closing arguments that a lawyer or law student could pick up and read and and say, “Hey, what did Johnny Cochran argue? How did he explain reasonable doubt in the O.

J. Simpson case?” And I went out there and we spent I spent 2 years looking through transcripts, trying to find the best examples in different cases. In there we have some of the some of the greatest trial lawyers in the country in the past 50 years with snippets of their actual arguments that are made, broken down by subject and topic. And so, there’s like 22 ways to explain the concept of reasonable doubt.

You know, but closing arguments are critical in a trial. So, whatever everyone thinks of. When you’re watching TV or you’re watching a movie about trial lawyers, everyone they go it’s the cross-examination and the closing arguments. But the cross-examinations typically don’t have the type of drama that you see on TV because when a very effective cross-examination may have some drama, but it’s like we’re going shopping, right? And I’m going to cook I’m going to cook something.

I’m going into the into the market to get ingredients, right? So, when I’m in cross-examination, a effective, quality cross-examination, not some BS one, I’m going to be getting facts I want to argue my position at trial. And I may be doing some drama. There may be some heightened entertainment. That’s just the way I try cases.

But I’m looking for specific facts I want to pull out to support my theory. Then I put all that together in the closing argument. That’s your chance to stand up before a jury, to look them in the eyes, and to give them the theory of innocence for your client. And it’s a powerful moment. And you can write it out, which I don’t.

But you have to be able to deliver it. And that’s what really separates okay or good attorneys from great attorneys. It’s the ability to speak, the ability to be in order, and then be able to deliver when it counts. And you read these and you just read them out loud say, “Okay, this is what right looks like. I may not be able to deliver or you may not be able to deliver up to the Johnny Cochran level, but you see what right looks like and it just elevates your game.”

And that’s what a jury wants to see. And when you deliver that powerful closing argument, when you sum up sometimes a year’s worth of work or a week’s worth of trial together in this killer Kick-Ass closing argument, that’s what the jury’s left with. And when they go back to the deliberation room, oftentimes the words you used are lingering in that courtroom still. And when they come back and those most powerful moments of a trial, I talk about it all the time. The most powerful moment of a trial and the most powerful moment of being a trial lawyer is when the verdict comes back and the judge takes a look at it.

You give it back to the members. And your heart’s beating out of your chest. And if your heart’s not beating out of your chest, you’re in the wrong line of work. And they say, “Accused and defense counsel, please rise.” And you stand up and the president says, “Of all charges and specifications, not guilty.”

And it’s like, boom! That’s it. That is it. That’s what all the time and and all matters. And a lot of that is going back to delivering on the closing argument.

And so, this book, I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re a average lawyer, if you’re a new lawyer, or if you’re an amazing lawyer, this will elevate your game. Tim, I I want to comment on there’s some other lawyers in there, a total of 17. And it was amazing to me the lawyers that that were high-profile lawyers that you know, you see them on TV like Mark Geragos. He represented Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, you name it.

We have Tom Mesereau. I wrote to him and asked him if I could use his closing part of his closing from the Michael Jackson case that he won a full acquittal on. Immediately called me on the phone and was so excited cuz there has never been any book like this out there. That wisdom, if you’re fresh at law school or even doing it for 10 years, his experience, I boiled it, simmered it down, and I put those slivers of his wisdom, and he’s brilliant, both of those men, into the book as well. So, take a look at it.

You can see it on Amazon. You can preview the book on Amazon. You can get the print version or you can get the Kindle version as well. Or you can get both. I think you get the Kindle version for free if you get the print version on Amazon.

But check it out. You can’t go wrong with it. And and really, Tim, I want to thank you again for for sharing your material with me in that book. It’s outstanding and and a great addition to the book. Thank you.

You’re welcome. And one of the things I want to also talk about, too, is when you were collaborating with me as you were writing the book, was the amount of lawyers you reached out to who were also allegedly high-profile attorneys who didn’t have any closing arguments, who don’t try cases. And we had talked about trying to get the best minds together to put this book. And we had kind of talked and it’s your project, but we had collaborated just on some of the ideas. And I know that you went to attorney after attorney after attorney who portrays themselves as these renowned trial lawyers, but they hadn’t tried a case in the last 5, 10 years or the material was terrible.

And so, it’s amazing how many people don’t actually try cases anymore. I wrote to 500 attorneys. 500 of the best attorneys in America that that you would think are the best. And 90% of them told me, “Ah, nobody tries cases anymore. I don’t have material.

I haven’t tried I I had someone that I looked up to a lot. He told me he hadn’t tried a case in 18 years.” I’m like, “What are you talking about? On your website I swear on your website you’re like this hard-hitting trial attorney. You haven’t tried a jury trial in 18 years.”

And that was something that really surprised me as well. And so, either you are a you’re an attorney or you’re a criminal defense attorney or you’re a trial lawyer. And I agree with that. I was really surprised how few people are still trial lawyers. The bottom line is you’ve distilled some of the great current trial lawyers and some their fantastic closing arguments.

Get the book. Take a read through it. It’s not going to hurt. It’s going to make it’s going to elevate your game and and help you better represent your clients. And that at the end of the day, that’s what this is all about.

We’re trial lawyers. We want to get in there. We want to go to trial. And we want to win and take care of these clients. Anything we can do to better ourselves to do that is going to help you win.

Get the book.