Canadian Lawyer

Regional wRap-up centRAl Beyond words S ilence is golden for Montreal lawyer Vincent Denault, a litigator who is carving out a specialty speaking to lawyers about why it is important to pay attention to nonverbal communication. It is the pauses in between questions that can turn up valuable information, says Denault, noting that many lawyers, while well prepared with multiple points to cover, often proceed from one to the next without looking up at the person testifying or allowing them to fill any silences in between. While Denault, 29, has obvious practical tips to pass along, the first aim of his workshops is to present a framework of how to look at non-verbal communication, beginning with creating awareness of the power of observation. "Lawyers must develop a sense of observation and we are not conditioned for this in our society," he says. "We learn words, how to put phrases together, but they do not teach us to observe and have a critical eye for what we see." Not paying attention to the non-verbal can mean a lawyer loses out on valuable information or leads for what may be hidden, says Denault. The payback for learning how is useful not only for discovery and cross-examinations, but also for establishing trust when building lawyer-client relationships and negotiations of all kinds, he adds. That said, Denault is quick to point out there is "no one magic formula, no pre-established list of elements, no one gesture to detect what is hidden or a lie — nothing like Pinocchio's nose." For instance, one popular belief has it that people who do not look their questioner directly in the eye must have something to hide or be lying. Denault says such beliefs must be thrown out the window along with other pre-conceived notions and any tendency to jump to conclusions. Honing observation skills can help legal practitioners be on the lookout for "red flags" that can lead to enlight8 J u ly 2013 www.CANADIAN Vincent Denault is carving out a specialty in nonverbal communication. ened follow ups or analysis, or provide an indication of further areas to investigate, he says. L a w ye r m a g . c o m Denault has already given non-verbal communication and lie-detection skills training to more than 135 lawyers since his first public foray in Quebec City last February after the first workshop he developed, called The Search for Truth: Non-verbal Communication and Lie Detection, received eligibility for credit toward mandatory continuing legal education. He first became interested in nonverbal communication and lie detection after watching a television interview about how to interpret the facial expressions of former American president George W. Bush. A few courses in synergology, a discipline for interpreting and decoding body language developed by French political scientist Philippe Turchet, and hundreds of hours reading authors such as Paul Ekman, Aldert Vrij, Saul M. Kassin, and Albert Mehrabian followed, says Denault, a self-professed autodidact. More literature is appearing on the subject and Lie to Me, the American crime drama television series, Win one, lose same T he work of Quebec City-based Lawyers Without Borders Canada was thrown into dramatic relief in May when former Guatemalan president General José Efraín Ríos Montt, now 86, became the first person ever to be convicted of genocide in a court in his own country. Montt was handed down the maximum sentence of 50 years for genocide and a consecutive 30 years for crimes against humanity, including the massacre of members of the Central American country's Ixil Mayan community during counter-insurgency operations 30 years ago. Lawyer Pascal Paradis, executive director of LWBC, says the organization helped provide volunteer lawyers who gave the equivalent of more than 1,000 days to help the local Guatemalan legal team prepare witnesses, build legal arguments using both international and comparative law, and to systemize the evidence. The historic legal victory was short-lived. On May 20, in a 3-2 decision, Guatemala's Constitutional Court overturned Montt's conviction and said the trial should be reset back to April 19. It was unclear after the high court's decision whether or not there would be a new trial. — KL

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