Richard Shavzin
Richard Shavzin has been coaching litigators in performance and communication skills for oral argument, depositions, and other public speaking for over 30 years. He is the President of Chicago Litigation Consultants, and spent two years on the faculty of the Chicago Bar Association Leadership Institute.
In addition to private coaching, he provides actors to law firms for training purposes and for reading depositions in court, and teaches group seminars on physical and vocal skills for public presentation. He has been retained as a jury consultant in legal malpractice proceedings, and coordinated a week-long, 30-actor performance in federal court. Richard’s current and former clients include Mayer Brown; Jenner & Block; Winston & Strawn; Schiff Hardin; McDermott, Will & Emery; Skadden, Arps; Lovells; Vedder, Price; Ungaretti & Harris; Stone & Moore; Sachnoff & Weaver; Seyfarth Shaw; State Farm Insurance; Philip Morris; the National Institute for Trial Advocacy; the Wisconsin Bar Association, and Northwestern University School of Law.
A veteran Chicago director and actor, Richard has received two Joseph Jefferson Awards—Chicago’s version of the Tonys—and currently serves on the National Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the Central Regional Board of Actors Equity Association (AEA), and the Executive Board of the Illinois AFL-CIO.
“For years we have used actors from Chicago Litigation Consultants in our deposition programs, and they add an element of realism and spontaneity that we could never equal if we tried to play those roles ourselves or used other non-actors from our legal world. It makes the experience for the lawyers we’re training so much better.”
—Robert Burns