Story telling for Lawyers

Lawyers are professional story tellers. 

Well, lawyers don’t argue; they tell stories. Storytellers are what lawyers are. They earn their bread, butter and wine by telling stories, all sorts of stories. And they need to tell their stories very well. 

Make no mistake about it—lawyers are storytellers. It is how lawyers make their livings. In law practice effective storytelling is often outcome determinative; sometimes it is literally a matter of life or death. Of course, storytelling practice in law is also unlike the work of other popular storytellers. 

Lawyers are ethical and truthful storytellers; imagination is informed, shaped, and limited by evidence. The lawyers’ voice and persona are different; the rules of, and constraints upon, formal legal storytelling are explicit and unlike those of other popular storytellers. 

Further, lawyers often do not tell complete stories, typically leaving it to others (judges, juries, decision makers) to complete the tales and inscribe codas of meaning. Nevertheless, as lawyers they have much to learn from studying the craft of storytelling and applying these lessons to their legal practice. As professional storytellers they can do our jobs better the more consciously they deploy the tools of the storyteller’s craft.

All arguments, at any level or in any type of practice, are built upon arrangements of the facts of a particular case. These facts are shaped into stories carefully fitted with legal rules and precedent. It is impossible to make any legal argument without telling some stories about the facts and about the law. Unlike an analytical argument, the structure and internal components of a “story” are never pointed out or made explicit to a listener or reader. The “verisimilitude”—or lifelikeness—crucial to effective storytelling demands that the audience not be distracted by, or even be aware of, the technical craft that shapes the material, lest the storyteller risk breaking the story’s “spell” over its audience. 

Nevertheless, as storytellers have understood for millennia, there is a powerful and well-defined narrative architecture or structure in stories. There are clear principles that inform storytelling practice. This is no less true for the types of stories that lawyers tell. As Henry Miller observes, and as any effective litigation attorney knows, the truth of a story is in its telling. Likewise, a story’s form is inseparable from its content; the two are inextricable. Effective storytelling requires “ruthlessness” and commitment to constructing a coherent and seamless world.

But how does a lawyer tell a “good”—effective, purposeful and persuasive, compelling and factually meticulous, and truthful—story? 

The ability to tell stories is a core cognitive competence for a lawyer to succeed in his work.In fact, storytelling skill is a basic cognitive infrastructure for lawyers. 

CognInfra has designed a unique distance education program on Storytelling for Lawyers.This program equips you with knowledge, skills and insights to master the art of telling stories. 

To receive the program e-brochure Call +91-8600178825 or 

email:  prakashalmeida@knowledgefountain.org