Substance & Style
| Publication year | 2013 |
| Pages | 14 |
| Citation | Vol. 82 No. 2 Pg. 14 |
Substance & Style
Luke, I Am Your Lawyer: Making Sure Your Client Is the Good Guy in the Story
By Joyce Rosenberg, University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, jorose@ku.edu
It was winter break for my three boys as I wrote this column, and we watched a lot of movies. They like action-packed, plot-driven movies with colorful, appealing characters: “Star Wars” is the absolute favorite, along with the “Indiana Jones” and “Men in Black” series.
At the same time, I prepared to teach briefwriting and advocacy in the spring semester of Lawyering Skills. Reviewing class notes, with movies on replay in the background, I began thinking about the stories and characters in these movies. What makes them so compelling? Why are we so confident that the good guys should win? Why do we believe the stories from the filmmaker's perspective? Are there lessons for lawyers in these movies?
In writing a brief's facts, of course, lawyers aren't writing fiction. We have to adhere to the facts of what happened so in one sense, we're stuck with the story our client brought us or the one developed in the record. In another sense, though, the facts of the case are ours to tell. Lawyers don't dream up the characters and plot. Instead, we concentrate on thoughtfully portraying the facts we have to tell a persuasive story on our client's behalf.
Two keys to persuasive storytelling stand out from films like "Star Wars." (I spent significant time with the "Star Wars" narrative over winter break.) First, develop a character to whom the audience can relate. Second, describe the conflict so that the main character is unmistakably on the right side. (A third important point is to bind the narrative with a cohesive, easily-grasped theme—a subject for another column.)
1. Character
Portray the client as a sympathetic character. "Sympathetic" does not mean "pitiful." In film, characters are heroes not because of their sob stories, but because of how they approach their circumstances. We admire a character because of her intentions, efforts, and aspirations. Consider that in "Star Wars," Luke Skywalker is at his most irritating when he complains about life on the farm; he becomes a hero only when striving to defeat the Empire.
In a brief, the client must become the hero of the story. Imagine briefs in a case in which a company fired an employee. The employee claims the...
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