Three Weeks at Thunderhead Ranch: What the Gerry Spence Method Taught Me About Trying Cases

In June 2023, I spent three weeks at Thunderhead Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming, as part of the Gerry Spence Method 3-Week Program. I have been trying personal injury cases in New York for well over a decade, and I went there expecting to pick up some new techniques. I came home with something more useful: a better understanding of how to tell my clients' stories honestly, and how to stand in front of a jury as myself.

Who was Gerry Spence?

Gerry Spence was one of the most famous trial lawyers in American history. Born in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1929, he spent decades in courtrooms and, according to his biography, never lost a criminal jury trial as either a prosecutor or a defense lawyer. He represented the family of Karen Silkwood against Kerr-McGee, won the acquittal of Randy Weaver after Ruby Ridge, and wrote numerous books, including How to Argue and Win Every Time. He also set out to pass on what he knew, founding the Trial Lawyers College, now known as the Gerry Spence Method. He passed away on August 13, 2025, at the age of 96.

You can read more about his life and cases on Wikipedia.

Three weeks at Thunderhead Ranch

The 3-Week Program takes place on Spence's ranch in the Wyoming mountains. Each lawyer brings real cases to work on, and the program is built around three stages:

• Week one: trust and story. Through psychodrama and role reversal, you step into the shoes of your client, the witnesses and even the other side, so you understand what really happened and how each person experienced it.
• Week two: jury selection and communication. The focus is on talking with jurors honestly, including about the hard parts of a case, instead of hiding them.
• Week three: building the case for trial. You shape the story into an opening, witness examinations and a closing, and finish with a mock jury trial.

What surprised me most is what was not taught. Most legal conferences teach you someone else's method: their script, their checklist, their style. Here, none of that is taught. The whole program is about developing your own skills and finding your own voice as a lawyer. As the program puts it, you leave as "not a different person, but a different lawyer."

The setting is part of the experience. There is the Wyoming scenery, a hike up Spence Mountain, good healthy food, and three weeks with no phones and no Wi-Fi. For a trial lawyer used to a ringing phone and a full inbox, that time to think was a gift in itself. You really have to go there to experience it.

What it means for my clients

People who come to MooreJustice have usually been through the worst experience of their lives: a fall from a scaffold, a crash with a commercial truck, a serious injury on a city sidewalk. Their case is not a file number. It is a story about what happened to them and how it changed their life, and a jury needs to understand that story the way they lived it.

The Gerry Spence Method gave me better tools to do that. I spend more time understanding my clients' experience from the inside, I talk with jurors more directly about the difficult parts of a case, and I build each trial around the truth of what happened rather than a script. Insurance companies know which lawyers are ready and willing to try a case. Training like this is part of how we make sure MooreJustice is one of them.

I recommend the program to any trial lawyer who wants to keep getting better, at any stage of their career. And I am grateful to have learned at Gerry Spence's ranch while he was still with us.

Darren T. Moore is the founder of MooreJustice New York City Accident & Injury Lawyers. Read more about Darren or see our latest Firm News.