Many a young idealist register for law school with visions of Atticus Finch dancing in their heads, but only the rarest few have those dreams come true. NITA Trustee Emeritus and national treasure James Brosnahan is among them. In Episode 49, this legendary legend reflects on a life in law that has included face-to-face encounters with such cognoscenti as Chief Justice Warren Burger, Senator Orrin Hatch, and the Kennedys. He also talks about his viral LinkedIn series on vocal quality and breaks down the six essential qualities of a commanding speaking voice that have served him well over his 60+ years in the courtroom. 

4:28   Voice quality videos on LinkedIn
9:05   Evaluating your own voice quality
11:25 Tempo
17:22 Volume
20:53 Tone and mood
25:16 Warmup exercises
28:20 Emphasis and emotion
30:06 Speech harmonizing and collecting voices
35:15 Favorite voices
37:05 Clarity
42:59 Pauses
41:57 Arguing before SCOTUS
52:04 Interrogation by Orrin Hatch
56:21 Controversial representations
1:00:16 Defending the Constitution
1:03:35 Speaking truth to power
1:07:29 Boston Irish and the Kennedy agenda
1:14:39 What Jim has learned at NITA
1:19:03 Signoff questions

Quote

“The goal, which is not easy, is to be like an actor who can throw the voice up into the second balcony. That’s what you want to do. The equivalent in trial is to be sure that every word that you pronounce is heard by Juror 1 in the back row and Juror 6 in the back row, because if they haven’t heard what you’ve said, it’s like it never happened.” Jim Brosnahan

Resources

Jim Brosnahan (bio)

Jim’s video series (LinkedIn)

Justice at Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases (book)

Publio Delgado, speech harmonizer (YouTube)