A lawyer who can communicate in an emotionally gripping way has an enormous strategic advantage. Judges, jurors, and clients are all human beings and drawn to a compelling narrative like anyone else. Lawyers have all kinds of opportunities to deliver powerful narratives, yet often fail because they don’t know how to do so.
At Stanford Law School and Michigan Law School, at law firms from Los Angeles to New York, at non-profit legal organizations and at continuing legal education courses around the country, I have taught lawyers and law students how to put together an engaging story and how to apply those insights to legal situations. A handful of other lecturers may teach “storytelling for lawyers,” but almost all of them are academicians or theorists – no one else teaching that material offers the perspective of a professional writer of 30+ years.
Those who have taken my workshops and courses get a huge leg up in negotiations, in the courtroom, in dealings with clients. One student said he was “in a negotiation, and the other side had the stronger case, but I won because I had the stronger narrative.” A partner at a large firm was stymied before his argument at a circuit court of appeal, but he developed his argument, with confidence, after taking my course, and won the case. And my approach has a wide utility: everyone from bankruptcy lawyers to litigators to judges to negotiators have taken the course and sung its praises.
My workshops are in two parts.
- In the first, I take the students out of the legal context and show them how a writer puts together a story: identifying the audience; developing a story drive; laying out a beginning, middle, and end; coming up with an effective opening; working through the essentials of plot and character; making smooth transitions; and avoiding clunky exposition. I use film clips and excerpts from well-known movies, books and plays to make my points.
- In the second, we return to the legal realm and apply our storytelling insights to real-life legal situations. I deliberately choose cases where the sympathies seem to be entirely with the other side, but students see that by constructing a powerful narrative, they can still carry the day.
The workshops have been extremely well-received, and are offered in various formats. Click here to learn more and here to request a quote or sign up for a workshop at your organization.