Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Litigation strategy is the process by which counsel for one party to a lawsuit intends to integrate
their actions with anticipated events and reactions to achieve the overarching goal of the
litigation. The strategic goal may be the verdict, or the damages or sentence awarded in the
case. Alternatively, in the case of impact litigation (also known as strategic litigation) the goal
may be more far-reaching, such as setting legal precedent, affecting consumer-safety standards,
or reshaping the public's perception of a societal issue. Broader goals and more challenging
cases require a strategist with a greater understanding of, and facility with, the tools of litigation
strategy.
Attorneys who apply advanced strategic concepts (such as Maneuver and the Boyd Loop), which
are not taught in most law schools, may gain a decisive advantage over attorneys who are
unfamiliar with the skill set and who, because of their unfamiliarity, can be unwittingly
maneuvered into disadvantageous actions. The resulting imbalance has led to academic criticism
of the use of advanced strategic techniques. Professor Hugh Selby of Australian National
University's College of Law has been particularly critical of its use by prosecutors, who already
wield the massive power of the state against often poorly resourced defendants. The
counterargument is that strategy can correct already-existing imbalances in the system, allowing
a sole or two-attorney law firm with an indigent client to level the playing field against a large law
firm with a wealthy corporate client, and allowing attorneys with little trial experience to effectively
try cases against vastly more experienced opposing counsel.
Conscientization Strategy
Conscientization is an emancipatory pedagogical process developed by the
educator Paulo Freire that is designed to teach students, through critical literacies,
how to negotiate the world in a thoughtful way that exposes and engages the
relations between the oppressor and the oppressed.
A key concept in Freire`s approach is conscientization,
meaning the ways in which individuals and communities develop a critical
understanding of their social reality through reflection and action. This involves
examining and acting on the root causes of oppression as experienced in the here
and now.