Brian K. Johnson

Brian K. Johnson was America’s pre-eminent teacher of legal speaking skills for forty years. With co-author Marsha Hunter, he wrote three illustrated books for lawyers that are unlike any other in their focus and format. While other legal books teach lawyers what to say, these books teach attorneys how to say it persuasively and how to say it well. The books offer the reader immediately useful performance techniques with detailed instructions on how to practice the skills described.

His clients included America’s top law firms. Teaching at the Department of Justice National Advocacy Center, he trained every Assistant United States Attorney in the Basic Criminal Trial Program for over two decades. The National Institute for Trial Advocacy awarded him its faculty award in 2000 for his unique contribution to the teaching of advocacy skills. His international consulting practice took him to law firms and training programs throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as overseas to the United Kingdom and Europe. He taught Solicitor Advocates in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dublin, Ireland, and twice trained federal prosecutors for the Republic of Estonia.