Trivial courtroom gestures become strategic moves competitors will race to intercept.

Evidence

The next morning, during a break in the proceedings, the second juror, Linda Kaplan, started coughing. Schlichtmann stood at his counsel table, only a few feet away from Kaplan. He had a pitcher of water and paper cups on the table, within easy reach. He glanced at Kaplan, debating whether he should offer her a cup of water, and then decided he could not risk it. Facher, a dozen paces distant, poured water from his own pitcher and started toward Kaplan. Then one of Cheeseman’s partners briskly crossed Facher’s path and reached Linda Kaplan first with his own cup of water. Facher, intercepted in mid-stride, stood in contemplation for a moment and then raised the cup to his lips and took a sip. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 1888

Categorization

• CANDY: A rival lawyer sprints across the room to beat Facher to a juror’s cough, and Facher drinks the cup himself — a perfect elevator story.
• SEED: Angle: jury pandering as an arms race — the small kindnesses lawyers withhold because a juror might read them wrong.
• XREF: connects to: Trial lawyers mirror each other’s presence as strategic deterrence. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 2320; A clever tactic can be defeated when adversaries study and counter it.; Movement strategy selectively chooses which authentic acts become test cases — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive: The Complete…, 514 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Trial lawyers mirror each other’s presence as strategic deterrence. #corroborates (0.95) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2320
• Strategic moves work by constraining one’s own behavior to shape an opponent’s expectations. #corroborates (0.95) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 361
• A clever tactic can be defeated when adversaries study and counter it. #corroborates (0.90)
• Movement strategy selectively chooses which authentic acts become test cases #corroborates (0.85) — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 514
• Proximity to raw deal-making can teach the mechanics of destroying opponents #complicates (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 612
• Court advocacy assumes roughly matched adversaries to reach justice #complicates (0.75) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 262