Story Power

• Author: Philip N. Meyer
• Pages: 22-23

Story Power

Attorney Bryan Stevenson tells stories to change the shape of the world

By Philip N. Meyer

More than 40 years ago, shor t story writer and novelist

John Cheever said to his crea tive writing classes that he t old

stories becaus e it is easier to change the shape of the world

than it is to change one per son’s mind. I was a student in his

class, and the line s tuck with me. Cheever was a bril liant and

insightful te acher imbued with a belief in the tran sformative

power of storyt elling. But, at that time, I didn’t understand

what he meant. Today, I have a better understandi ng of what

he was getting at. C uriously, I have learned about the power

of storyt elling through the practice and te aching of the law.

Civil rights a ttorney, writer and law professor Brya n

Stevenson intuitively comprehends Che ever’s wisdom.

Whether at trial or i n an appellate courtroom, wr iting his

own superb autobiographica l nonfi ction, the bes t-selling

Just Mer cy, or in his e orts to evoke and acknowledge

the historica l narratives of the black exper ience and our

legacy of racia l injustice in America through t he work of

the Equal Justice Init iative, Stevenson employs well-told

stories to change t he shape of the world.

Of course, Cheever w rote fi ct ional narratives to reveal

hidden dimensions of the social l andscape of privileged

upper classes in Amer ica during the 20th centur y. Stevenson,

on the other hand, tells fa ctually accurate a nd legally metic-

ulous stories. But Steven son’s stories reveal a n equally hid-

den shadow world inhabited by the poor and d isempowered

within our socie ty, who are often trapped within our c rimi-

nal justice sys tem. Both storytellers r eveal discrepancies

between how we act a s a society, contrasted with ideal iza-

tions of who we are and how we imag ine ourselves to be.

In very di erent ways, both Cheever and St evenson are

prophetic artist s and teachers, telling “tr uthful” stories of a

di erent sort because, often, it i s easier to change the shape

of the world than it is to change one pers on’s mind.

CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE PUBLI C IMAGINATION

Stevenson is an updat ed, 21st-century model of the civi l

rights attorney a s a transformational stor yteller. His roots

hark back to the gre at civil rights litigation att orneys of

earlier generations: from Cha rles Hamilton Houston to

Thurgood Marshal l to Jack Greenberg to Julius Chambers

and on to Anthony Ams terdam. These mythic litigator s went

from courtroom t o courtroom arguing tr ial and appellate

cases, inter preting the meaning of our Constitution, a rguing

for social justice, e xecuting planned socially tra nsformative

litigation strateg ies. And yes, like Stevenson, al l sought to

be prophetic story tellers, calling on people to be tr ue to

whom they are supposed to be a nd what they might become.

Earlier planned litigat ion strategies (such as campaigns

for school desegregation and for the ab olition of capital

punishment) took place primar ily within the court sy stem,

employing legal arg umentation as the mechanism for social

change. Much of Stevenson’s practice ta kes place within the

courtroom of the public ima gination, via the amplifi cations

of media. Stevenson u nderstands that, in our par ticular

time, stories th at capture the popular imagin ation and gain

cultural tra ction profoundly infl uence the law and may a ec t

outcomes in specifi c legal cases.

I urge readers to wat ch Stevenson’s superb 23-minute

TED Talk: “We Need to Talk About an Injustice .” Stevenson

explores complex and controversia l themes, such as exploita-

tion and racism in our hi story and systemic injustice w ithin

our current-day cr iminal justice system. Yet his pre sentation

captures the ima gination of his privileged audienc e with-

out pandering to it. Steven son never lectures or argues at the

audience. But he never softens hi s own beliefs, never turns

his heartfelt pa ssion into mush. His performance is pitch-

perfect and prov ides an eloquent model of how a gifted liti-

gation attorney employs stor ytelling skills t o empower an

audience wit h a meticulous lawyerl ike argument.

TALKING POINTS

Stevenson’s TED Talk has been ana lyzed in several recent

books. It is used as a model for openi ng statements in Shane

Rea d’s Turning Points at Trial. And it is a nalyzed as a

prototype of e ective salesm anship in Carmine Gallo’s

The Storyteller’s Secret. Why are Gallo’s observations on

sales “pitches” releva nt for lawyers? Obviously, because

litigation lawyers a re also salespeople of a sort, tr ying to

move our audiences to action a nd to close our deals with

favorable verdic ts and outcomes.

There are many lessons for law yers in Stevenson’s

performance. F irst, there is the stylistic qu ality of his

“voice.” Stevenson is understat ed, self-e a cing, yet pas-

sionately engaged with hi s material. He speaks wit hout

notes and appears ps ychologically naked; there is nothing

between him and h is audience. He seems as if he is in a

dialogue w ith his audience.

In a lawyerlike way, Stevenson a lso strategically employs

22 || ABA JOURNAL MAY 2018

Storytelling

EDITED BY KEVIN DAVIS,

LIANE JACKSON

Practice