Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 18, 2011
Renowned memory trainer to host local lawyer seminar
David Laprad
Paul Mellor, a finalist in the 2008 USA Memory Championship, is coming to Chattanooga to share his secrets on memory improvement. His seminar, titled “Memory Mastery for Lawyers,” will take place Feb. 24 at the Mountain City Club from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Participants will earn six hours of Dual CLE credit. For pricing information and to register, call the CBA at 756-3222.
- Photo provided
What time am I due in court? Where are my notes for the cross-examination? How am I going to remember the important points of my closing argument?
Being a lawyer is an information intensive profession. There’s rarely a moment during any given work day when an attorney isn’t being bombarded with facts, details and particulars, or isn’t required to store and process a wealth of data related to a variety of matters. Combine this phenomenon with the so-called “senior moments” that seem to happen more and more as people grow older, and life as a lawyer can turn into an ongoing battle to remember things.
Paul Mellor says he has a solution. And he’ll be in Chattanooga next Thursday to share it with members of the local Bar Association.
A finalist in the 2008 USA Memory Championship, Mellor has spent the last seven years of his life training lawyers and other professionals to improve their lives by strengthening their memory. He’s written extensively on memory improvement, conducts seminars throughout the nation and believes everyone can enhance their brainpower.
“I talk with people who can remember what they were doing on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, but they can’t remember what they had for breakfast. That happens; we’re human.
“But my learning techniques are easy and the results come quickly. At my seminars, I’ll have someone write down 20 unrelated objects. I’m able to look at the list for a couple of minutes and then remember it frontward, backward, every third one and every fourth one. By the end of the day, the people at my seminar are doing the same thing,” he says.
Mellor teaches a number of memory-empowering techniques during his seminars. One of the simplest involves a person applying new information to something he already knows. He offers an impromptu example using the name David:
“Our minds remember in pictures, so when I hear a name, I turn it into a picture. Now imagine a juror named David who enjoys reading. The name David doesn’t create a visual, but if I pull out the vowels and push the remaining letters together, I get a DVD. When I listen to a book, I play a DVD. So I can associate the name David with reading.
“Later, if I’m talking about the importance of education while in court, and I remember David likes to read, I can assume he’s well-educated. So, during my opening and closing statements, I’ll want to move my eyes to him. The more information you can remember about people, the more you can tailor your talk to them.”
Mellor says the techniques he teaches during his seminars can help an attorney become a better listener while meeting with a client, save time while preparing for an appointment or a case, acquire stronger concentration skills for arbitration, mediation and negotiations, and make polished presentations without notes during a hearing or trail.
“Imagine a client coming into your office and you saying, ‘Hello, Mrs. Henderson. This is what you’re dealing with, here’s our game plan and I need this, this and this. Or, during a deposition, recalling that Sheila said she ran off the road and into a neighbor’s tree, and remembering the page number on which her statement is recorded,” he says.
Mellor was living in Rich-
mond, Va., and working in the insurance business when he became interested in the subject of memory. While browsing a local library for a speech topic, he found a book he remembered his mother reading when he was a teenager: “The Memory Book” by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas. He pulled the book off the shelf, started reading and was fascinated.
“I’d always thought people were born with either a good or a bad memory. So I gave a brief talk on memory at the Toastmasters Club, and that sparked a real passion in me,” he says.
Mellor initially spoke to the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs in Richmond. One thing led to another, and he quit his day job and started speaking on memory full-time. To date, he’s given seminars in 44 states, published dozens of booklets and prepared a Web site that will take his message to the masses.
Mellor says he does forget something from time to time, as he’s only human, but that at 52-years-old, his memory is better than when he was 22. He also loves what he does for a living.
“I don’t mind Monday mornings. I get a kick out of giving these seminars and hearing people say they can remember more than they thought they could. I like teaching people that the answers to their memory problems are already in their heads,” he says.
Mellor’s seminar, titled
“Memory Mastery for Law-yers,” will take place Feb. 24, 2011 at the Mountain City Club from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch will not be provided. Participants will earn six hours of Dual CLE credit.
For pricing information and to register, call the CBA at 756-3222 or email Lynda Hood, executive director at the Bar, at lhood@chattbar.org.
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