Environmental law is something that I have found fascinating for decades. In fact, I was involved in environmental litigation even before I founded A2L more than 23 years ago. It was a topic I focused on during law school and during the summers when I worked for a major pharmaceutical company.
Since then, A2L has been involved in more than 100 environmental and energy cases involving more than 10,000 cleanup sites. These cases have ranged in size from a few million at stake to over $20 billion at stake.
All these cases have a few things in common. First, most clean air and clean water cases necessarily involve with complex scientific concepts. Often topics such as plume migration, organic chemistry, and the concept of parts per million must be explained to the jury, the ultimate factfinders, in an understandable way.
For the last ten years, another thing has become ubiquitous in environmental and energy cases -- the extensive use of PowerPoint. Here are three examples of the use of PowerPoint to show how complex topics can be translated into easier-to-understand pictures.
First, here is an example of PowerPoint (converted to video format for easy viewing) that shows how one can illustrate both historical contamination issues and modern soil sampling by combining PowerPoint, photography and some simple illustration. This presentation is typical of those presented by experts in groundwater contamination cases.
This next example is really a contract dispute with energy and environmental issues embedded in it. It is an example from one of the so-called Yucca Mountain cases. In this line of cases, because the government failed to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada, it is on the hook for ongoing damages for the costs of storing the waste, particularly spent nuclear fuel rods, at each nuclear power plant facility. Litigation occurs when the government and the plant operator cannot agree on the costs of this storage. This is an example of a PowerPoint that combines extensive technical illustration and PowerPoint to explain the hundreds of steps and the levels of complexity in removing the reactor pressure vessel and fuel rods from one facility. Hundreds of illustrations are loaded frame by frame into PowerPoint to create the feeling of an animation.
This third example shows plume migration through illustration combined with PowerPoint. The movement of a plume over time can easily be demonstrated in a classic New England former mill site case.
It’s clear that PowerPoint is a useful tool in the hands of a talented litigation graphic artist in environmental and energy cases. At A2L, we use it frequently and with great success.
Other free A2L articles and resources related to PowerPoint litigation graphics, environmental cases, and demonstrative evidence generally include:
- 16 PowerPoint Litigation Graphics You Won't Believe Are PowerPoint
- 12 Ways to Eliminate "But I Need Everything On That PowerPoint Slide"
- Complimentary Environmental Litigation E-Book Download
- Environmental Litigation Demonstrative Exhibits and Trial Graphics
- Why reading PowerPoint litigation graphics slides hurts your trial presentation's effectiveness
- Why shouldn't I just make my own PowerPoint slides?
- 7 PowerPoint Trial Presentation Secrets Revealed
- Free E-Book Download: Persuading with Litigation Graphics
- The 14 Most Preventable Trial Preparation Mistakes
- 12 Reasons Bullet Points Are Bad (in Trial Graphics or Anywhere)
- 6 Studies That Support Litigation Graphics in Courtroom Presentations
- Run a conflicts check with A2L Consulting
- 7 Ways to Avoid Making Your PowerPoint Slides Your Handout
- The Top 14 TED Talks for Lawyers and Litigators 2014
- 12 Ways to SUCCESSFULLY Combine Oral and Visual Presentations
- How To Use and Design Trial Timelines
- How To Create Persuasive Visual Presentations
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