Page 19 - Minnesota Vol 8 No 3

less than 100 hours of jury attention by having a conversation with somebody else in front of them. Jurors learn intuitively and o en by attaching new information to old threads. ere is rigorous academic work being done right now in the marketing and education sectors on how people come to believe things, how they support a decision. Being a trial lawyer is all about how to help jurors as they reach the decision they have to reach. What do they need to know to get it right?”
He added, “I assume that jurors are honest, sincere and committed. A er many dozens of trials, I have not yet met a jury that does not absolutely care about getting it right. ey desperately want to do the right thing. If I have a criticism of our legal culture, it’s lawyers who say, ‘Stupid jury this,’ and, ‘Stupid jury that.’ I think that’s just an excuse for losing, and I don’t allow that energy inside me.”
Another element of Conard’s trial art is his genius for assembling ace legal teams. rough the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer’s College, he has access to some of the profession’s greatest talent, much of which he says comes from small or solo rms. “I don’t have a problem building teams ad hoc, and there is a freshness and excitement about it. When you bring a new team together, everybody is very intentional about the choices they make. I’ve had good luck so far.”
Conard’s good luck is evident in the power lineup he recruited for defense of former Starkey Laboratories President Jerry Ruzicka in one of the biggest white-collar trials of the last decade. e Starkey team included more than half a dozen lawyers and professionals who worked together over a period of two years, from California to New York, with stops in Baton Rouge and points between. “When you put together a team for this game, you do it with the knowledge that the client only gets this one game. I need at least one member on my team to be as di erent from me as I can nd. I need someone with experi- ence I don’t have, to make sure we identify the blind spots. Once we have the right people in place, everybody knows their role. ere’s no supplemental auditioning — the focus is on the client.”
Another interesting insight about Conard: When the Starkey trial was over and most of the lawyers moved on to their next cases, he took the summer o to volunteer, teach and meditate from select moun- taintops across Montana, Wyoming and Utah. He says that cultivating interests outside the law and centering himself as a person is vital to his e cacy in courtroom. He meditates daily.
“A er Starkey, I was tired. I was worn out. I make sure that no one ever walks into the courtroom more prepared than me, and I’m never up against opposing counsel who knows more about the story that will be told. So I need the other stu I do in life to clear the slate so I can come back whole, centered and present.”
e truth is, nobody is harder on Conard than Conard. A er every case, he dedicates time to self-re ection that he terms both unforgiving and precise. “I analyze everything brutally even when I win. e hard- est part for me is when I have to look clear-eyed at mistakes I made that somebody else has to pay for. I’ve made mistakes and thought later that I wished I had been a better attorney in that moment than the one who showed up. I work hard to stay honest about the work, so I don’t make the same mistake twice.”
What is one word Conard would use to describe himself? Invested. “I am one of the lucky few who do the work they feel is their calling. I have found home.”
One thing you can say for sure about Conard is that he is the pro- tagonist of his own life. He is eager, intrepid, yet thoughtful about his engagement with the world and the people in it. As his literary hero Norman Maclean wrote, “... life every now and then becomes litera- ture ... as if life had been made and not happened.”
At a Glance
John C. Conard PLLC
310 S. 4th Avenue, Suite 5010 Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 440-0690 www.jurytrialmn.com
Practice Areas
Criminal Defense White-Collar Criminal Defense
Education
Juris Doctor, William Mitchell College of Law
Graduate, Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer’s College
DNA Defense Training, National Institute of Science and Technology
Bachelor of Arts, Central College, Iowa
Speaking Engagements
The Trial Lawyers College, National Faculty
MSBA, Trial School
Minnesota Association for Justice Iowa Association for Justice
Honors
Super Lawyers, 2014-Present Board Certi ed Trial Specialist,
Criminal Law, 2014-Present 10 rating, AVVO 2010-Present