The Art of Questioning: Thirty Maxims of Cross-Examination

The Secrets of Effective Inquiry. With a new Author’s Prologue (2007). Originally published: New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., [1987]. xxxiii, 122 pp. Written for seasoned attorneys, novices and laymen, this classic essay reveals, step by step, how lawyers and non-lawyers can learn to ask the right question and get the answer they want. Useful beyond his stated purpose, Brown shows how effective inquiry is a skill that can be learned to gain success in almost any line of endeavor.

"Peter Megargee Brown's delightful collection of tips on questioning for the litigating attorney should be almost as much fun for the layman. It is full of wit and wisdom and shrewd insights, and the chapters read like short plays." -- Louis Auchincloss.

Peter Megargee Brown began his legal career as assistant counsel to John Marshall Harlan on the New York State Crime Commission. After Mr. Harlan was appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Brown went on to become chief litigator for the New York firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. In 1982, he founded his own law firm in New York, Brown & Seymour. He is a Past President of the Federal Bar Council and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is the author of numerous books, including Figure It Out: A Guide to Wisdom. He was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School and lives with his wife, the designer and author Alexandra Stoddard, in Stonington, Ct.

The Peter Megargee Brown Papers, the legal papers of the author, comprising 303 bound volumes of his principal law suits over 50 years of practice in the United States Supreme Court and Appellate Courts, are available for the use of students and scholars and can be found in the "Manuscripts and Archives" section of the Yale University Library.