Power Point for Lawyers
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Learn to use PowerPoint more effectively as a lawyer. From presenting evidence, to marketing your firm, your presentation skills are critical to your success.
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Power Point for Lawyers
- 1. PowerPoint for Lawyers Joyce Brafford Center for Practice Management NC Bar Association
- 2. Agenda • Key Concepts • A Tour • Transitions & Animations
- 7. Be Funny
- 10. Limit Animations
- 14. Font Choices
- 15. Audio and Video
- 16. Structure
- 17. Themes
- 18. The Tour • Home Ribbon • Format Ribbon • Charts & Smart Art
- 19. Transitions • Transitions Tool Bar • Duration • Sounds • To Click or Not to Click
- 20. Animations • Animations Tool Bar • Entrance • Emphasis • Exit • Motion
- 21. Questions? Joyce Brafford Center for Practice Management NC Bar Association jbrafford@ncbar.org
Editor's Notes
- What’s the point of any presentation? To get people to trust you, your data, and ultimately your presentation.
- Your job is to get people to reevaluate their preconceived ideas. Whether you want to reinforce their ideas, or if you want to change their minds on a given point, you want them to think about the information you’re presenting, and walk away agreeing with the conclusion ti which you have lead them. That will not happen if you don’t consider their needs, limitations, and aspirational learning goals. Talk to your audience with it’s unique personality and demographic makeup in mind. Talk to them, not at them.
- As lawyers, we are, on the whole, a pretty charismatic bunch. Let this be an advantage, not a hindrance. There is a fine, but very distinct line between helpful and condescending, informed and a know-it-all, and charming and smarmy. While it’s impossible to fully understand how you are perceived, do you best to read your audience and respond to the ways in which they are reacting to you.
- Every action you take in public will affect your brand. If you’re a trial lawyer, and you are defending a client, your presentation of evidence must be clear and cogent. If you are making a marketing pitch to a potential business client, your presentation must exude professionalism. If you are presenting a CLE, your points must be engaging. Think about who you are, and what kind of impression your presentation needs to make. Facts and data alone will not be enough. They are critical, but you must also think about the lasting impression your slide deck will make, and how that will effect your client, future business, or referral sources.
- In many cases, inserting a joke or two into a slide deck is a really good idea. It breaks up the monotony, gives folks a short reprieve from learning something, and lightens the mood. Not every slide needs to be hard hitting. Occasionally you should be light hearted.
- The most effective slide decks are the ones that are elegant. Don’t get bogged down in design or text. Let the slides speak for themselves as they act as support for you. Your slides usually should not tell the whole story for you, and should instead bolster what you have to say.
- One of the most important notes I can give you today is that bullet points are one of the worst slide deck crimes. They weigh down your slide, take attention from you, make your slide the focus of the presentation, distract your audience, break trains of thought, allow for only passive listening, and are just plain ugly. There are times when text on a slide is unavoidable, but keep it minimal. Rather than 3 bullet points to express unemployment and hunger rates in NC, say what you want to say with a supporting slide that has only the key fact- a percentage rate. The rest of the information about poverty, hunger and the correlation should come from your mouth.
- Animations are certainly fun, but in professional presentations they should be kept to a minimum. Like too much text, they distract your audience and cause passive listening. If you do use animation, do so very sparingly, with an editor’s eye. Only the most crucial items should be animated, and it likely that nothing in your presentation will benefit from animation.
- High quality graphics can make a difference between a point well made, and a distracting, disappointing cartoon. Bad clipart is a hallmark of presentations that are heavy on cheap tricks, and low on content. Not all clipart is bad, but I’m here to tell you that the majority of it is. We live in a time where you can find beautiful, interesting graphics by doing a simple Google search. Don’t cop out by relying on power point clip art. Bring your presentations to life with better images that drive your point home much better than cartoon business men, or squiggly doodles.
- Using charts and graphs are an excellent way to drive home a pit using real data points. Be mindful, however, that not all charts and graphs are created equal. There are really 2 theories here: 1- use only 1 or two numbers or percentages to compliment what you are saying. 2- create a graph that is understandable with out the context of your presentation. I tend to prefer the first option, but there are times when a full graph is important- when identifying trends, when making complicated comparisons, etc. My advice here is that you firmly stand in one camp or another. A graph that is so complex that an audience needs to stop listening to you to read it, but is not detailed enough to give a full picture is a waste of a slide, and is a detriment to your presentation.
- There is a lot of research about color and psychology. While using a particular color won’t always invoke the emotional response you’re trying to convey, it is important to know that gray, while professional can cause a feeling of ambivalence, or that yellow is a high energy color, while green is not.
- It’s hard to understate the importance of font in a presentation. You need to make sure that your slides are legible, that your font choice mimics the mood you’re trying to convey, and that you remain professional. As a quick note, let’s all vow never to use comic sans, or curlz MT.
- Adding a short video to your PPT can be a great way to reengage your audience. Note that videos should be pretty short- less than 5 minutes, and they should be really pointed. Don’t make your audience work to understand why you’re showing them a video. As for audio, music, voice clips, or other things that sound like “real audio” are great and can emphasize your message. Cartoon sounds like car horns or “boing” are distracting, and should not be used.
- By Concept- group slides in logical clusters by their topic. This is the best structure if you’re presenting abstract concepts, making a sales pitch, or examining evidence Chronological- group slides using a time line. This is the best solution for story telling. Adversarial- group slides in by how they support or disprove a certain topic. Longer slide decks will use some combination of the three.
- Your theme will carry over through all your slides and will control color, font, bullet points, and more. You can customize a theme, or you can find many online for free. I like the look and feel of incredibly simple themes, but if I use one which is more complex, I tend to avoid the standard theme that come with power point. They come across as canned, and lack personalization.