Depositions inform defense trial lawyers in seeking summary judgment, obtaining a favorable outcome at mediation, leveraging for outright case dismissal, or, once at trial, critically impeaching a witness on cross-examination. Notwithstanding the critical impact of this skill set, emerging trial lawyers often receive inadequate deposition training. In-firm mentor programs produce uneven success in the deposition training arena, with one study indicating that as many as 57 percent of lawyers take their first deposition without training.