O’Brien speaks at two trial seminars

“Microexpressions and Depositions: From the Sublime to the Practical” was the provocative topic for SUNY Buffalo Law adjunct professor Christopher J. O’Brien in a recent address in Atlanta.

The Dec. 6 lecture was part of the 36th annual Auto Torts Seminar sponsored by the South Carolina Association for Justice. Trial lawyers from across the South attend the seminar, whose presenters include well-known lawyers from across the country and experts in their fields.

Microexpressions are brief, involuntary facial expressions that reflect human emotions. Unlike regular facial expressions, they’re difficult to conceal and thus for trial lawyers provide valuable clues to the emotional states of witnesses and jurors.

O’Brien, a graduate of Washington & Lee University School of Law in Virginia, is a trial attorney in Buffalo with The O’Brien Firm. He has taught trial technique at SUNY Buffalo Law School for 15 years and co-directs the school’s trial advocacy program with Judge Thomas P. Franczyk. He also recently made a major gift to the school to provide scholarships for future trial attorneys; the gift honors his late father, Gerard J. O’Brien ’52, who had a long and successful career as a civil trial lawyer in Western New York.

Next up, O’Brien will speak in March in Cambridge, Mass., at the American Association for Justice’s Ultimate Trial Advocacy Seminar.