National Trial Lawyers President Mark Lanier isn't afraid to use a few props to make a point to a jury. Forbes has a profile of Lanier titled "A Bale of Hay and a Block of Cheese: How Mark Lanier Won $4.7 Billion Talcum Powder Verdict" The story begins with how Lanier pulled a knife out of his pocket during the trial and "held it over a large block of yellow cheese."
“You’ve got Bailiff Jim over there just looking for an excuse to shoot, so I looked at the judge and said `Am I allowed to do this?’” Lanier recalled at a recent meeting for mass tort trial lawyers. “`For now,’ the judge said.”
Lanier was using the knife and cheese to illustrate to the jury how talc is mined. He went on to use a bale of hay, a bathroom scale and "drawings scribbled on overhead projector slides" to communicate with jurors. Read more about Lanier's techniques and tactics at Forbes.
