Master Class on CX

For the first time ever, Isaiah McPeak and Attorney Griffith Vertican will be teaming up to teach a Master Class on Cross Examination. We will be spending multiple hours teaching and developing different strategies for CX including:

1. Developing a keen sense of Situational Awareness - especially as it relates to who the judge is and who the competitor is (i.e. experience vs novice, 4'11" female vs 6' 2" male) and what the stage is (i.e. prelim round vs NITOC Finals)

2. Nonverbals and Persona - understanding the impact your persona has during CX and ways to improve your nonverbal communication is CX including how to project credibility, be more engaging, and more dynamic in your cross-examination

3. How to assess a competitor's strengths and weaknesses

4. The art of framing questions - when to ask open-ended vs closed-ended and 10 ways to frame closed-ended questions

5. How to ask strategic follow-up questions that exploit case weaknesses and highlight the strength of your case.

6. Different schools of thought and approaches to CX - the path to agreement vs the "You can't handle the truth!" approach; Good Cop vs Bad Cop, and the Johnnie Cochran - Trial attorney approach.

7. Different strategies to implement - including
a. impeaching your opponent's arguments,
b. setting up your next response,
c. clarifying ambiguity,
d. expanding the impact of previous points,
e. introducing new evidence,
f. identifying missing links, weaknesses in your opponent's argument, or fallacies they may be committing.

8. How to handle the obstructionist - what to do when someone is being unreasonable, confusing, illogical, mean, inappropriate, and what to do when facing a filibuster.

9. Constructing CX briefs - how to pre-script questions that link to your briefs in advance.

10. Creating a triage for your follow-up question. - What to ask when your opponent says no vs yes vs some other random answer :P

11. The power of humor in CX - how adding a bit of levity can completely change the outcome of the round... especially in finals!

12. How to answer CX questions - when to answer a question with a question, spotting the "gotcha question," and maintain credibility in your answers

And much more.