Beat The Prosecution- Fairfax, Virginia, Criminal Defense / DUI Lawyer

• Winning with masterful storytelling, joy & blissful wisdom: Bob Thurman- Dharma teacher & more

  Send us a textFairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz derives tremendous inspiration in his courtroom work from teacher Robert Thurman, for his humor, caring realness, great storytelling ability, and certainly his genius in conveying Buddhist, mindfulness and spiritual ideas in a way that draws in the audience. In this episode of Beat the Prosecution, Jon Katz goes beyond what has already been written about Bob, to find out what energizes and inspires him to be the great person and teacher that he is. Bob's story is fascinating, to say the least. In his early twenties or so, he went to Asia, and ultimately became a monastic. He was not even aware of the Beatles when they took America by storm. Then, Bob returned to layperson life, and became a Buddhist scholar and is a major translator of Buddhist texts. He was a professor at Amherst College and then Columbia University. He co-founded Tibet House in New York, along with Richard Gere and Philip Glass. With his wife Nena Thurman, he spearheaded the Menla reatreat center in the Catskills, which is a project of Tibet House. The greatness of the Thurman name expands further with their daughter Uma Thurman. Jon Katz first started reading Bob Thurman's writings and listening to him around fifteen years ago, and met him twelve years ago. Bob is able to tackle even the most challenging and troubling issues, and permeate them with his infectious, compassionate and riveting humor. Bob would be a great trial lawyer; fully, persuasively, and entertainingly engaging the audience, clearing the air of unnecessarily heavy energy, vibrating highly, and distilling the message without needing to rehash unnecessary factoids. Experience Bob's essence, persona and brilliance with his podcast, videos and books at BobThurman.com . Jon recommends visiting and donating to Tibet House, and visiting the Menla Retreat Center. Bob recommends reading his Wisdom is Bliss book Jon also very much likes Bob's Infinite LIfe book. Among the opportunities to meet Robert Thurman is the is the mid-August 2025 Ram Dass Legacy Summer Mountain Retreat in North Carolina. This Beat the Prosecution episode is also playable on YouTube and Apple podcasts.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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• Winning by keeping the claws & fangs on your lawyer- Attorney Carolyn Elefant

  Send us a textBethesda lawyer Carolyn Elefant is a trailblazing lawyer. Not being cut out to conform to law firm life, she decided thirty years ago to strike out on her own. For decades and counting, she has shared her pearls of wisdom and encouragement -- including in her book Solo By Choice -- for lawyers to consider becoming their own bosses, and to thrive as solo and small firm practitioners. At first, Carolyn's focus on energy law might sound establishmentarian, until you hear here about her repeated representation of the underdog threatened with eminent domain and other actions when they simply want to be left alone. Carolyn lives the motto of helping others to rise as she rises. Fairfax criminal and DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz first met Carolyn over twenty years ago, at a few SoloSez small and solo law firm gatherings. Her persona seems lowkey as she pursues winning results for her clients as while balancing that with her personal life, as exemplified by her making the best out of solo law practice by teaming with her husband by sharing to be fully present with their young children, and then seeing Carolyn returning to work after their daughters' bedtime and working until 1:00 a.m. It is no wonder that Carolyn led the path for 777 (including Jon Katz, here signed in at page 25) and 334 small and solo practicing lawyers, respectively to join as amicus parties in the Susman Godfrey and Perkins Coie brave injunctive actions -- when some previously highly-sought-after large corporate law firms to work for have instead buckled down -- pursuing a stop to the Trump Administration's onslaught against those two law firms and other targeted law firms, for starters, to revoke access to federal personnel and to strip their lawyers of security clearances. True to her nature, in this podcast episode, Carolyn gives full credit to the lawyer and assistant team who worked with her on this great effort. This Beat the Prosecution podcast episode also is available visually at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXS609LUFU&list=PLH1070JxGHYma6D5XevcUS_96cfmLm71AThis podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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• Winning by speaking up with truth & passion- Bachir Atallah & Celine Atallah

  Send us a textFairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that we are at the moment of truth for standing up to Donald Trump's onslaught against non-United States citizens, lawyers and law firms, and higher education. If not, we will face the discomfort of younger generations in the future asking what we did to raise our voices to all this injustice flying from all directions in this period in American government. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is among the groups at the forefront of challenging such a state of affairs, with FIRE having a wide range of the political spectrum among its staff and supporters. Do not let people marginalize your voice by endeavoring to paint you as a lunatic leftie, when such opposition is much more broadbased than that (and our guest Bachir Atallah voted for Donald Trump). Jon Katz deeply thanks lawyer and naturalized United States citizen Bachir Atallah -- who with his wife Jessica Fakhri suffered around a five hours-long detention including being held in cold cells, by Customs and Border Protection officials on their April 13, 2025 drive back from a weekend in Quebec, as Bachir reports -- and his attorney and sister Celine Atallah for addressing the ordeal of Bachir and Jessica, and their current pursuit of justice to put a stop to such mistreatment. Bachir's (nicknamed Basho) story has been covered widely in the news media, and here we go in full depth devoting this entire one hour Beat the Prosecution episode to the story of Bachir and Jessica. Nothing beats hearing Bachir's story through his own words, including his recounting repeatedly being subjected to secondary screening while traveling internationally. If United States citizens are not safe from the mistreatment that Bachir describes, who is? In Beirut at the time of this April 22, 2025 interview, Bachir expresses his real concern about how he will be treated upon his return to the Logan Airport in Boston.  Newsweek reports that "CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham told Newsweek [Bachir Atallah's] accusations are blatantly false and sensationalized..." That conclusory denial comes from someone who was not present while the events unfolded, and an exhaustive Google search and search of the CBP and DHS websites does not reveal any further government statements nor explanations on the matter. The name of this podcast is Beat the Prosecution. A vital part of doing so is to maintain checks and balances among the branches of government, and certainly not to accept the Trump administration's running roughshod over the rights of non-United States citizens (and, here, the rights of U.S. citizen Bachir Atallah), lawyers and law firms, and higher education. This episode is also available in full here on YouTube.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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• Winning from the center of the story- Jon Katz on persuasive storytelling and scene re-enactment

  Send us a textFairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz learned early in his trial career about the critical role of persuasive storytelling, executed throughout the trial, and not only in opening and closing. Jon Katz in this first Beat the Prosecution episode in a year without a guest, illustrates how he won an assault trial by supporting his client's alibi by illustrating the alleged assault's happening in Club Blah, where the defendant at the time was in Club Ah, and could not bring himself to stepping foot in Club Blah any more than he could bring himself to drinking a cask of prune juice mixed with vinegar. The persuasive story at trial usually is not found overnight, but is discovered with close attention and listening, visiting the incident scene, and bringing the listeners to the scene and the circle and center of the story, often incorporating all five of the human senses. Read more about persuasive storytelling in court, with Jon's article published in the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers newsletter, entitled "Story power – DID YOU DO IT? Transporting the jury to the persuasive circle of the story, and applying psychodrama."Persuasive storytelling is a central approach of the National Criminal Defense College's Trial Practice Institute that Jon attended for two weeks in 1994, and the Trial Lawyers College, which Jon attended for an entire month in 1995, with psychodrama and scene re-enactment also being major focuses of the Trial Lawyers College. The parallel video of this podcast is at Fairfax Criminal Lawyer on Winning from the Center of Persuasive StorytellingThis podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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  11:53
• Winning with fiercely compassionate mindfulness and samurai spirit- Michael Carroll of Global Coaching Alliance

  Send us a textIn 2015, Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz finished court early enough to rush over to the Mindful Leadership conference in Arlington, eager to meet such great teachers as Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Dethmer and Rhonda Magee. Sold out, said a front desk person. A woman overheard my asking what I could do about that, and she sold me her extra ticket. This conference was so good that it would have been worth flying coast-to-coast for such an experience. Learning applications of mindfulness to my life and work are very important. Among the best teachers for that at this conference was author of Awake at Work (and more) Michael Carroll -- currently with Global Coaching Alliance, and a student of such advanced teachers as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche -- who immediately captured me with leading a grounding sit followed soon after with the story of a tollbooth angel who would greet people even at the most trafficked, sweaty and stressful times of day, hand them an M&M candy, and wish them a nice day. Michael bridges any gap between mindfulness and Buddhist teachings and applying them to the real world, including the rough and tumble of the workplace, and, in this episode, the courthouse. I should have known long ago already about highly accomplished samurai and Five Rings  author Miyamoto Musashi, but did not, other than hearing about Five Rings. In this podcast interview with Jon Katz, Michael masterfully relates the lessons of Musashi's masterful defeat of Sasaki Kojiro to its applications to our own lives. Michael is a life tourguide who helps reveal plenty, including lessons and truisms that are right in front of our eyes, but that we have yet to see more clearly. Check out -- and read -- his books and more here. This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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