Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has a new book out, cowritten with the editor of Black's Law Dictionary, Brian Garner:  Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges.  They could have dropped the "Judges" part and marketed the book as a how-to book for persuasion and argumentation.  As I read it this evening, I noticed how applicable the chapter on General Principles of Argumentation was to many business and life situations.

1)    Be sure the tribunal has jurisdiction - Translated:  Be sure you are persuading the person/people who has the authority to do something if they agree.
2)    Know your audience - What type of person are you attempting to persuade?  Should you get to the point?  Appeal to logic?  Appeal to emotion? 
3)    Know your case - You are supposed to be the expert.  Have a grasp of the issues.  When the listener senses that you aren't sure what you are talking about (and they will if you aren't) you are in trouble.  Prepare.
4)    Know your adversary's case - Be very familiar with the competition.
5)    Pay careful attention to the applicable standard of decision - Be very familiar with the playing field.  Try to know what will be perceived as a decision standard.
6)    Never overstate your case.  Be scrupulously accurate - When someone tells me in a sales presentation that they are the best or do things better than anyone else, bells start to go off.  Let the facts make the case.
7)    If possible, lead with your strongest argument - First impressions and short attention spans translate into strongest arguments up front.
8)    If you are the first to argue, make your positive case and then preemptively refute in the middle - not at the beginning or the end - Primacy, recency.  Whenever possible start and end with your plan.  Defense in the middle.
9)    If you are arguing after your opponent, design the order of positive case and refutation to be most effective according to the nature of your opponent's argument - Aristotle - "If one speaks second, one must address the opposite argument, refuting it and anti-syllogizing, and especially if it has gone down well. . ." 
10)  Occupy the most defensible terrain - Don't get too fancy.  Stick to easily understood and defensible reasons.
11)  Yield indefensible terrain - ostentatiously - Don't waste valuable time, resources and credibility defending (or presenting) arguments with gaping holes.
12)  Take pains to select your best arguments.  Concentrate your fire.
13)  Communicate clearly and concisely - Jargon does not make you appear smarter; it confuses.  The great communicators are clear and concise.
14)  Always start with a statement of the main issue before fully stating the facts - Cicero:  "men are desirous to learn the very point that is to come under their judgment."  We have a sales representative who started a recent presentation with: "Why choose [insert our company name]?  It was a great statement of why we were in the meeting.  And it went over well.
15)  Appeal not just to rules but to justice and common sense.
16)  When you must rely on fairness to modify the strict application of the law, identify some jurisprudence maxim that supports you.  Okay, one out of 21 is tied pretty tightly to judges.
17)  Understand that reason is paramount with judges and that overt appeal to their emotions is resented.  They did say "overt."
18)  Assume a posture of respectful intellectual equality with the bench.
19)  Restrain your emotions.  And don't accuse - There is a difference between confidence in your arguments and drinking the Kool-aid.
20)  Control the semantic playing field - The authors cite attorney's defending American Airlines and using "AA" for brevity.  They gave up the repetition of the word "American."  On the opposite side, they cited Warren Christopher defending a company who was responsible for a large oil spill.  Christopher referred to the oil spill as "the incident."  The opposing side picked up on his terminology to their detriment.  Use words and images to your advantage. . .consciously.
21)  Close powerfully - and say explicitly what you think the court should do - Review persuasively and ask for the business or the decision.

Worth the price of the book.