On Vioxx Litigation and Bullet-Free PowerPoint Presentations

Updating my “PowerPoint for Litigators” presentation that I make in trial practice courses each year I ran across the following interesting item:

Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullets Blog quotes a recent article in Fortune describing the use of the author’s book by the plaintiff’s lawyers in the recent Vioxx litigation:

"Speaking in state court in Angleton, Texas, without notes and in gloriously plain English, and accompanying nearly every point with imaginative, easily understood (if often hokey) slides and overhead projections, (the plaintiff's lawyer Mark) Lanier, a part-time Baptist preacher, took on Merck and its former CEO Ray Gilmartin with merciless, spellbinding savagery..."

"But in contrast to Lanier... (defendant Merck's lawyer David Kiernan) seemed to read much of his presentation and illustrated it only with stodgy, corporate headshots of Merck officials or hard-to-read excerpts from documents whose meaning was shrouded in medical jargon..."

Atkinson notes that Lanier’s PowerPoint presentation was of course “completely bullet-free” thanks to his hands on consultation with Lanier.  A $253.4 million dollar verdict is a pretty good book advertisement!

Lee Peoples, Oklahoma City University Law Library