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The Jury is Out offers insight, experience and mentorship to trial attorneys who want to better serve their clients and improve their practice. Hosted by John Simon, Member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and Founder of Simon Law, Tim Cronin, Attorney at Simon Law, and St. Louis attorney Erich Vieth, named one of the top Appellate Attorneys in Missouri in 2021, The Jury Is Out focuses on client relations, trial skills and firm management. Nationally recognized guests add depth and vision to the lively and inspiring discussion. Recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the winningest law firms in America, Simon Law has obtained more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements in medical malpractice, personal injury and corporate law since the firm’s founding in 2000. The Jury Is Out is a production of Simon Law. Contact us at comments@thejuryisout.law.
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Co-hosts John Simon and Tim Cronin move from style and brainstorming into the concrete goals attorneys should have walking into any deposition. As John puts it, if a deposition isn't accomplishing one of these goals, it may be worth asking why you're taking it at all. John and Tim break down the list of tips, from establishing the elements of your case and eliminating claims and defenses, to boxing witnesses into fixed answers, flipping expert opinions before they're given, and establishing safety rules the other side has to agree apply. Along the way, they share detailed trial stories: a trucking case built around the true purpose of a trailer's rear guard, a corporate representative deposition that quietly eliminated every defense in a wheel failure case, and a five-minute deposition that ended a case before it truly began. The episode also digs into the discovery side of depositions most attorneys underuse.
Hosts John Simon and Tim Cronin dig into how to read a witness in the first 15 minutes, when to be deferential versus direct, and why walking in with a rigid game plan can cost you if you're not willing to throw it out in the first of a new multi-part series on deposition strategy. They break down what separates attorneys who simply gather information from those who use every deposition to actively build their case and share real war stories from decades of practice. The episode covers five tips on style and approach and four tips on brainstorming before you even build an outline, laying the groundwork for the deeper series ahead: deposition goals, thorough preparation, in-the-room tactics, and cross-examination strategy. As John and Tim put it, the case goes as the deposition goes and this episode explains why.
John Simon breaks down nine of the top 10 factors most likely to derail a case and how to handle them with Tim Cronin as guest host. Here’s a hint: Experts. They also examine the impact of recent social media–driven verdicts and discuss how a low rideshare verdict could influence similar cases moving forward in a good way.
In Part 2 of this father-daughter conversation, trial attorneys John Simon and Mary Simon continue exploring what truly drives jury decision-making. Through real courtroom stories and side-by-side scenarios, John explains why a defendant's conduct, credibility, and character often matter as much as the injuries themselves. Together, they discuss why jurors don't simply calculate damages—they make human judgments about responsibility, accountability, and whether someone has earned their trust.
This week's episode brings a unique dynamic to the mic as trial attorneys John Simon and Mary Simon—father daughter duo—sit down for an honest conversation about what jurors actually care about. Drawing on more than 41 years and over 100 jury trials, John shares the lessons experience has taught him while Mary asks the questions every trial lawyer eventually wrestles with.
Beyond exploring the civil rights victories attorney and professor Brendan Roediger has scored, the hosts dive into three themes of teaching the next generation in civil practice. Erich Veith, who co-teaches a Civil Practice course at St. Louis University Law with Roediger, walks students through a simulated case from initial client intake all the way to the eve of trial, noting it's where students stop feeling like the law is magic performed only by people smarter than them and start realizing they actually belong. Roediger proposes allowing students to submit AI produced assignments instead of preaching against it, and redline it, and write a memo explaining every change. The conversation ends with an open question none of them can answer: when AI can do the research, draft the brief, and summarize the discovery, what exactly are we training law students to become?
Find out how a defense theory that multiple women fabricated stories of sexual assault out of greed for settlement money collapsed under cross examination in this episode with Brendan Roediger, civil rights attorney and clinical law professor at St. Louis University School of Law. The episode covers a lot of Roediger's career, from the grassroots discovery of illegal warrant fees in St. Louis County municipalities to a $37 million verdict against the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and some of the most difficult civil rights litigation imaginable. What ties it all together is his view that the legal system routinely punishes people not for what they did, but for how little money they have.
This episode moves from the philosophy of improv into its specific mechanics and direct parallels to the craft of trial law. Guest Ashley Rube breaks down what she actually teaches: starting with being a great teammate, then building active listening, presence, and scene mechanics from there. The principle that your job is to make your scene partner look incredible reframes how Tim Cronin thinks about direct examination: rather than ticking through an outline, the attorney's role is to set up the witness to shine. Ryan Myers draws the same parallel from his years in sales: the best client conversations happen when you stop following a script and start genuinely listening for what the other person needs. Research shows that stress narrows lateral thinking and produces tunnel vision. Improv, the guests argue, doesn't replace a lawyer's skills, it quiets the parts of the nervous system that get in the way of those skills.
The Jury is Out offers insight, experience and mentorship to trial attorneys who want to better serve their clients and improve their practice. Hosted by John Simon, Member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and Founder of Simon Law, Tim Cronin, Attorney at Simon Law, and St. Louis attorney Erich Vieth, named one of the top Appellate Attorneys in Missouri in 2021, The Jury Is Out focuses on client relations, trial skills and firm management. Nationally recognized guests add depth and vision to the lively and inspiring discussion. Recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the winningest law firms in America, Simon Law has obtained more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements in medical malpractice, personal injury and corporate law since the firm’s founding in 2000. The Jury Is Out is a production of Simon Law. Contact us at comments@thejuryisout.law.
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