AZA Partner Todd Mensing’s Cross Examination Advice Featured in National News
October 7, 2015HOUSTON – Advice from Todd Mensing, a partner in of AZA or AZA, about effective cross examination was featured by national legal news service Law360.
In the article “The 5 Worst Things To Do On Cross-Exam” (subscription required), Mr. Mensing told Law360 that difficult witnesses who try to dodge questions are a boon for the cross examining attorney.
“I love it when a witness quibbles and is evasive,” Mr. Mensing told the news service. “I want the witness to look like they’re trying to hide something and that they’re a weasel. … A witness who answers in a straightforward way is giving the opposite impression.”
Mr. Mensing focuses on complex commercial litigation. He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and in 2015 was named one of the top 100 lawyers in Texas on the annual Texas Super Lawyers list.
He told the reporter about a case in which his opponent’s expert was smooth under direct examination but started being evasive and balking on cross examination. “When I later asked the jury about this expert, they were actually angry. They thought they had been duped by his false persona on direct, and they threw his testimony in the garbage,” Mensing told the reporter.
He is recognized among the top lawyers in the nation for commercial litigation in The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Mensing is also recognized in the area of Texas General Commercial Litigation in the 2014 and 2015 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business published by London-based Chambers and Partners. He was elected to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an elite group of the country’s leading judges and civil trial lawyers.
AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, intellectual property and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized in Chambers USA 2015 among the best in Texas commercial law; U.S. News & World Report and The Best Lawyers in America as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms; Texas Lawyer as a Litigation Department of the Year 2015 and Law360 as a Texas Powerhouse law firm. National corporate counsel named AZA both one of the country’s best in client service and one of the most feared. Read more at https://azalaw.com.