Betsy Greene, “Direct Examination” Faculty Co-Leader & ’05 TLC Grad

Betsy Greene attended her first TLC class in 2004 at the urging of her former boss. After that program, she returned home, quit her miserable job of 16 years the following Monday, and has had her own successful practice ever since.

Betsy, what makes TLC trial lawyers different?

“TLC Trial Lawyers are not like everybody else. Part of it is just the drive to be better, to think outside the box, to be willing to put yourself out there. To be a TLC trial lawyer you have to be willing to tear your heart out of your chest and put it right there on the floor in front of that judge there and let him stomp on it. And if they stomp on it, well, then you’ve got to suffer and I don’t know any antidote for that and I don’t know any answer to that but if I ever didn’t suffer at law, then I probably shouldn’t be doing it anymore.”

Tell us why you have continually returned to TLC programs for over 10 years: 

“Because of TLC’s effective methods for teaching advanced forms of communication and storytelling to juries, as well as the TLC community and sense of collaboration.  When the students gather at a TLC course, there is always this wonderful, exciting exchange of ideas, innovation and creativity. And that will happen in Chicago as well.  If you are a graduate, or you’ve attended a Regional Seminar before, or this is your first TLC event, every seminar- every class- is different, but yet the students, grounded in psychodrama and the TLC way, make it what it becomes — an invaluable, unique learning experience.   It happens every time!  It’s not a lecture method, it’s a collaborative method that involves the students and their cases, put into action, so we can all literally see what happened. At TLC, its collaboration from start to finish and that’s what is different.”

Betsy, there are a lot of CLE programs out there.  Why Chicago for Direct Exam?   

“In Chicago, we are going to focus on skills that will help the students discover the real story of their cases — not the recitation of facts.  And then armed with that story, we are going to show students how to tell that story during the direct examinations of your own witnesses.  These are skills that people can take home immediately and use on Monday morning.  With every examination, be it direct or cross, you are telling the story of your client’s case; but you are also telling the story of the witness and how it relates to the story of the case.  It’s about credibility and truth and that’s what students will learn in Chicago.”

About Betsy Greene:

Admitted to the bar in 1982 in Indiana (also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit and 6th Circuit, U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana), Betsy has represented injured people for 26 years & has personally tried over 100 jury trials in her career. She is a past president of the Trial Lawyers College Alumni Organization, the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association (2006-2007) and has served in the leadership of many other legal organizations, including the Indiana chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. She received her first certificate in Civil Trial Advocacy in 1995 and has been certified every 5 years since. She is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a “Super Lawyer” every year the ratings have been published.   Betsy has served on the faculty of the Trial Lawyers College for over 5 years and has three times been named as one of Indiana’s top 50 lawyers by the Super Lawyer magazine. Betsy is partners with Fred Schultz, another TLC grad, in the law firm of Greene & Schultz Trial Lawyers in Bloomington, Indiana.

Come join Betsy along with Cheryl Carpenter and a great faculty team line-up to learn about telling your client’s story during direct exam in a powerful way and winning way.