Photo courtesy of Howard Ehrenfeld howard@photoillustration.net

GILLIAN DRAKE
Founder and Director

GILLIAN DRAKE is the founder and director of ON TRIAL ASSOCIATES, INC., and Acting for Lawyers™. She was an accomplished theater director who, for over 20 years, has worked with lawyers and witnesses to elicit persuasive performances from even the most unwilling speakers. GILLIAN DRAKE is a nationally recognized expert on courtroom behavior of witnesses, lawyers, juries. She has consulted on hundreds of cases since 1985—many of them high-profile and diverse: from spies to priests accused of sexual abuse, from Indian tribes suing for federal recognition to mega-telecommunications companies trying to break up an industry, from custody battles to accounting fraud. MS. DRAKE lectures on trial strategy, witness preparation, courtroom "drama," and oral advocacy.

ON TRIAL grew from Ms. Drake's recognition of the parallels between the persuasive presentation techniques used by actors and those required of lawyers and witnesses in the courtroom. So, she began coaching lawyers and they began winning cases. She expanded her transformation of performances to attorney's witnesses and to business executives, professionals, CEO's, and governmental front-persons.

In the public communication sector, Ms. Drake and her associates use basic theater techniques to teach presentation and interpersonal communication skills - the same techniques actors traditionally use to perfect speeches, improve storytelling skills, gain self-confidence, learn to concentrate before groups, and develop a "performance image." With witnesses, the transference of performance skills is even more direct, i.e., stage fright, anxiety, presence, and authenticity are basic areas to master on stage or witness stand.

The success of Ms. Drake's unique approach has been overwhelming. ON TRIAL's clients include major corporations and law firms, non-profit organizations, government agencies, federal and state prosecutors, public defenders/defense attorneys, and legal trade and bar associations.

ON TRIAL has been featured on NBC’s "Today Show," The Wall Street Journal Report, and National Public Radio. The firm has been chronicled in the nation’s leading newspapers, magazines, and legal journals.

Before earning an MFA in directing from Carnegie-Mellon University, she studied for three years in New York City with the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler and received a BA from Bennington College in Vermont. For 15 years, MS. DRAKE was a professional theater director and voice coach. While on the artistic staff of Arena Stage several years ago, MS. DRAKE began applying her professional skills in a course called "Acting for Lawyers." The course was enormously successful and soon after expanded into On Trial Associates, Inc.—a trial consulting and speech communication company.

BENITA HOFSTETTER KOMAN
Witness preparer and On-camera coach for network and local television personalities

BENITA HOFSTETTER KOMAN has worked with OTA since 1992. She is an expert at witness preparation, including corporate fact witnesses for class action suits, multiple witnesses for complex civil litigation, and fact and expert witnesses in complex construction litigation. She has particular expertise in preparing financial services executives for testimony before the SEC and other financial oversight boards. Benita
has extensive experience working with groups and individuals, in preparation for deposition and trial, and in on-camera coaching of witnesses and attorneys. For 15 years, Benita was a lecturer, casting director, and special event coordinator in Washington, D. C. She has been an on-camera coach for Maryland Public Television, served as producing associate/ casting director at Arena Stage for three seasons, and taught at the University of Maryland. Her casting work is represented in the feature films: SHADOW CONSPIRACY, PELICAN BRIEF, OPERATION DUMBO DROP, and several others, as well as TNT made-for-TV movies. Plus, she has cast numerous commercials, industrials, political spots, and educational videos. Her clients include, to name but a few: NIH, National Institute for the Aging, National Geographic, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Defense, Prime Cable, and The Washington Times, and she was involved in the casting of the Broadway tour of RENT. Benita production manages and coordinates large-scale special events in the Washington area and nationally (including portions of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics) through her company, BHK Arts Consultants, Inc. Her clients include Emily’s List, National Women's Law Center, Anti-Defamation League, Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Corcoran Museum of Art. Benita is also a contractor for the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the National Museum of the American Indian.

NAOMI JACOBSON
Acting for Lawyers teacher and witness consultant, professional actor, and teacher

NAOMI has worked with ON TRIAL for seven years. She has developed the specialty of nurturing witnesses into confident, integrated, pleasing performers at depositions, trials, and arbitrations. She has expertise with medical and other injury cases as well as corporate witnesses. She brings depth and kindness to her work, to which every witness responds. NAOMI is available to reenact testimony at trials and focus groups. She is also a frequent Acting For Lawyers™ speaker/lecturer.

NAOMI JACOBSON has a rich background in theatre, film and teaching. A Helen Hayes award winning actress and Woolly Mammoth Company member, NAOMI has performed locally with Arena Stage, Ford's Theatre, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre, and Round House Theatre, as well as many regional theaters. She has taught acting, voice/speech and improvisation for 20 years for professional theater companies as well as at the University of Maryland, George Washington and Catholic Universities. In film and T.V., her acting credits include A&E, Maryland Public Television, NBC, Discovery Channel, the American Film Institute, the Smithsonian Institution and Frontline, to name a few.

NAOMI holds a Masters Degree from Temple University and received an Individual Artist Grant from the District of Columbia.

KIM SCHRAF
Acting for Lawyers™ teacher, workshop presenter and witness consultant, focus group facilitator, seasoned actor, and coach whose specialty is teaching theater to adults

KIM SCHRAF has served as a consultant with ON TRIAL, for over five years as a focus group facilitator and witness consultant. Her keen literary skills enhance all her work with ON TRIAL, because she can hear the story in the details. Her acting training helps her put herself in her witnesses’ shoes and find what is most positive and talented in them. KIM has prepared scores of medical malpractice witnesses, as well as defendants in white collar crime prosecution. Witnesses feel relaxed with her, able to bring out their best in their work with her.

Kim does many of our "professional development" consultations. Through a series of one-on-one sessions, she can bring out the most reticent public speaker or ready someone for interview, book tours, or professional development situations. She has also read testimony at trial and for focus groups.

KIM SCHRAF has been a professional actor and narrator of books on tape for 15 years. She has performed locally with Arena Stage, Studio Theater, Round House, the Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth, and Theater J, in such productions as FROZEN, THE GIGLI CONCERT, ANGELS IN AMERICA, SKYLIGHT, and A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY. For eight years, KIM has been a private auditioning coach; for nine years, she has served on the faculty of the Theater Lab whose specialty is adult theater education while also teaching as an adjunct professor at American University and Columbia Union College. For 15 years, she has been a teacher, counselor, and accreditation coordinator with the Parkmont School. KIM holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.

CONSTANCE FOWLKES
Teacher and actor

CONSTANCE has trained hundreds of lawyers and dozens of preachers since 1985. She has acted on virtually every theater stage in the Washington, D.C. area, including Arena Stage and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre. Ms. Fowlkes has also appeared in a number of films and television specials, headed a local theater department at an elite private school and was an adjunct theater professor at Catholic University and the University of Southern Mississippi. She holds a Master's degree in English from Georgetown University and a Master’s degree in acting from Catholic University. Her B.A. was in Theater from Vassar College. Constance's father was a founding member of Piper & Marbury (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary).

MS. FOWLKES has worked with Gillian Drake and Acting for Lawyers™ and On Trial Associates, Inc., since their inception in 1985. Her special talents as a teacher are that she offers intensity, insight, passion and a generosity of spirit that cannot be matched.

MEREDITH SIMS
Office administrator and focus group coordinator

ERIC TEMPLE (President, Canyon Productions)
Producer, writer, director

ERIC TEMPLE has been producing, writing, and directing broadcast television programs in major markets for more than 25 years and has spent more than 30 years in hands-on video production work. Temple served as executive producer of Evening Magazine at KPIX in San Francisco, as executive producer for programming at WJZ in Baltimore, and has produced countless episodic and documentary programs. Temple has received numerous awards for his work and is a member of the advisory council for the College of Communication at Northern Arizona University.

JOHN BUTZ (Canyon Productions)
Producer

JOHN BUTZ is Canyon Productions’ producer, who specializes in the defense industry. As a Public Affairs Officer for the Secretary of the Air Force, he served as a spokesman on major defense issues to national/international print and broadcast media. During his nine-year Air Force career, Butz conducted media training sessions for the nation's highest military officials. Following his retirement from the service, Butz formed Northlight Productions in 1988, which continued to provide both media training and video production services to major corporate and government clients.

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