DiCello Levitt Trial Center Offers State-of-the-Art Training Venue, Faculty of Top Trial Lawyers
Cleveland, Ohio / Chicago, Illinois, October 28, 2024—DiCello Levitt has launched the DiCello Levitt Trial Center, a platform for lawyers to test their cases through focus grouping, transformative storytelling, and a science-informed method of trial preparation. By applying a proprietary system to uncover jurors’ decision-making processes, the Trial Center reveals the winning message in every case.
“We teach lawyers how to teach jurors the facts of their cases,” said Bobby DiCello, a renowned trial lawyer and co-leader at the Trial Center. “The Trial Center has been quietly operating behind-the-scenes for some time, helping numerous trial lawyers find the winning message in their cases. Our formal launch opens the door for more lawyers to benefit.”
The DiCello Levitt Trial Center serves as a physical training ground, with courtroom facilities in Chicago and Cleveland, where lawyers can hone their skills and tailor their cases with state-of-the-art technology. Drawing on the latest findings in linguistics, literacy, information processing, and cognitive neuroscience, the lawyers at the Trial Center conduct primary research with focus groups, mock trials, and other exercises in real-world scenarios to reveal judges’ and jurors’ decision-making processes.
“We take a trial-first approach, which means getting every aspect of a case ready for trial,” explained Ken Abbarno, Cleveland office managing partner and co-leader of the Trial Center. “We’re going to tailor our discovery and push on the discovery requests. We’re going to get the depositions we need done and the experts we need. And we’re going to test each of these aspects when and how they need to be tested.”
Earlier this year, the trial team achieved a $5.7 million verdict in a commercial litigation matter. In 2021, the team won a record $50 million civil rights verdict in the case of Arnold Black v. Detective Randy Hicks. In preparing for a class action trial against General Motors for hiding a dangerous engine defect, the trial team conducted more than 20 focus groups in the district where the case was tried, uncovering how potential jurors viewed GM, how they responded to evidence that would be allowed at trial, and which language resonated most powerfully, among other vital questions. After a mere four hours of deliberation, the jury returned a $102.6 million verdict against GM, one of the highest ever achieved in an automotive defect class action.
The DiCello Levitt Trial Center is not only a hub for the firm’s litigators but also a resource for other law firms seeking to sharpen their message and argument, test their language and evidence, and practice their presentations. Trial Center lawyers assisted Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman in one of the first trials in U.S. history to occur entirely online, resulting in an $11.1 million verdict.
Learn more about the leading-edge work of the DiCello Levitt Trial Center, and download three jury insights, at DiCelloLevittTrialCenter.com.
About DiCello Levitt
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through class action, environmental, mass tort, securities, financial services, antitrust, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, and civil and human rights litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients.
DiCello Levitt has achieved top recognition as Plaintiffs Firm of the Year and Trial Innovation Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal, in addition to its top-tier Chambers and Benchmark ratings. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and case resolutions, please visit www.dicellolevitt.com.
Media Contact Caitlin Whitehurst, Director of Communications, [email protected], 513-582-3532