1) Humans have a natural tendency to manipulate others into doing something that they want. – As Nicholas strives to provide the greatest verdict against the defense, he becomes the great manipulator, changing everyone’s opinions and motives in favor of his very own. Despite some of the elders remaining steadfast in their opinions, many of the jurors are fickle and therefore, Nicholas converted them to his side with ease. Working with his assistant, Marlee, Nicholas amplifies his chances at making a verdict against the defense and even the possibility of raising the amount of punitive damage money to an outrageous sum. Even with Fitch always attempting to intervene and cause destruction to his case, Nicholas is able to prevail, along with the help he receives from Marlee.

2) Humans have a natural tendency to desire something that they can’t always obtain. – Fitch, who is the jury consultant, wants a verdict against the plaintiff’s side, so that he and his tobacco companies are not effected or sent bankrupt. However, with the opposition that he  faces from Marlee and Nicholas, this seems impossible and is actually made that way. Fitch is unable to outwit or out-develop Nicholas and Marlee, as they have spent years creating an impervious plan that only they can accomplish themselves. This contributes to the fact that Fitch can’t achieve what he desires to have, that is the verdict against the plaintiff’s side and not his own. However, his own efforts to manipulate others have sort of had a negative reversal on himself, causing him to fail and fall into the lull of Marlee and Nicholas’s plan. He has given into their demands and motives, revealing his loss of what he truly desired to obtain for his own greed.

3) Humans have a natural tendency to deceive others, either about themselves or other matters. – Marlee, who is Nicholas’s fellow collaborator and parter, is working on the outside of the courtroom, along with Nicholas on the inside, to provide the greatest verdict against the defense, which opposes Fitch and his associates. However, the ways in which Marlee deceives others is simply astonishing, as Fitch and his agents can’t find a single piece of information from her past. The only leads that they have found so far are that Marlee is her alias and that she has changed her name 2-3 times. At first glance, Marlee appears to be this innocent, beautiful young woman, yet she is actually a deceitful woman thinking through her well-developed plan and how she is going to succeed at it. In the end, everyone thinks that Marlee is simply working with Nicholas just to provide a verdict against the defense, when in actuality she is simply getting revenge on Fitch for causing her family to collapse into an impoverished state, after her  sister committed suicide, her family sued the gun company, and they lost.