Litigation is no laughing matter to your clients

Humor is the lubricant that enables us to slide through the obstacles life places in our way. That's why we say: "If I didn't laugh, I'd cry." But for lawyers, in the serious business of helping our clients, humor is a no-no. I don't mean in your personal life. I…

Nov 1, 2015 2:10 AM CST

How social emotions can influence jury deliberations

I am driving to the law school where I work, listening to Sirius radio. The Bridge plays music from the 1960s and '70s. Carly Simon sings "You're so vain. I bet you think this song is about you, don't you, don't you?" with Mick Jagger adding a sneering background vocal…

Oct 1, 2015 7:50 AM CDT

How trials are more like plot-driven movies than character-driven novels

Character is crucial in most popular storytelling practices. Most especially, it is at the core of the modern novel. The late literary critic and novelist John Gardner observed that at "the center of all great literature is character."

Aug 1, 2015 6:50 AM CDT

Savvy trial lawyers create sensory experiences to help jurors perceive witnesses’ stories

Last summer I attended an intensive, weeklong postgraduate writing workshop at Vermont College for Fine Arts given by the novelist and memoirist Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog and Townie). Not surprisingly, of the six participants I was the only lawyer. We met daily to discuss our writing.…

Jun 1, 2015 6:00 AM CDT

Going beyond the evidence to spin a story for your jury

Trial storytelling is often highly creative and innovative. It is filled with aesthetic danger and strategic risk-taking—as are all forms of narrative art. But there is far more at stake for legal storytellers.

Feb 1, 2015 6:21 AM CST

How lawyers can craft a case narrative to spark jurists’ and jurors’ interest

Peter Brooks, the esteemed narrative theorist, tells an anecdote about a brilliant graduate student in his advanced narrative theory seminar at Yale.

Jan 1, 2015 2:30 AM CST

Shaping Your Legal Storytelling

I've taught at five law schools for almost 30 years now. Here's one takeaway from the experience: Law schools tip the storytelling practitioner's factually complex, often indeterminate and ambiguous world upside down. Our pedagogy drains the emotional life from the stories and human conflict beneath the surface of appellate cases—the…

Oct 1, 2014 7:00 AM CDT

Stealing stories from the movies

Aug 1, 2014 8:10 AM CDT