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Storytelling for Lawyers
Good lawyers have an ability to tell stories. Whether they are arguing a murder case or a complex financial securities case, they can capably explain a chain of events to judges and juries so that they understand them. The best lawyers are also able to construct narratives that have an emotional impact on their intended audiences. But what is a narrative, and how can lawyers go about constructing one? How does one transform a cold presentation of facts into a seamless story that clearly and compellingly takes readers not only from point A to point B, but to points C, D, E, F, and G as well? In Storytelling for Lawyers , Phil Meyer explains how. He begins with a pragmatic theory of the narrative foundations of litigation practice and then applies it to a range of practical illustrative briefs, judicial opinions and oral arguments. Intended for legal practitioners, teachers, law students, and even interdisciplinary academics, the book offers a basic yet comprehensive
explanation of the central role of narrative in litigation. The book also offers a narrative tool kit that supplements the analytical skills traditionally emphasized in law school as well as practical tips for practicing attorneys that will help them craft their own legal stories.
explanation of the central role of narrative in litigation. The book also offers a narrative tool kit that supplements the analytical skills traditionally emphasized in law school as well as practical tips for practicing attorneys that will help them craft their own legal stories.
- GenresLawNonfictionLegal
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
119 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Philip N. Meyer
17 books13 followersPhilip Meyer (October 27, 1930 – November 4, 2023) was an American journalist and scholar who was a professor and holder of the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 21, 2016
The premise is interesting - lawyers need to tell stories and to learn how to tell them well. However Meyer restricts the scope to telling stories in court. For legal materials, he presents the trials' closing arguments and other petitioners' briefs. The need to tell stories permeates the whole legal practice. Although storytelling receives its full-fledged form in tort and criminal cases, it is also necessary in other less dramatic areas (e.g. how to respond to investigations from a tribunal/commission) which equally require a convincing story for your client.
Having said that, I do enjoy reading the running commentary of Meyer. The annotated excerpts of the two closing arguments are interesting both for legal practitioners and non-legal audiences who wish to learn more about literary analysis. Hs interdisciplinary comparisons among films, novels and legal texts are unexpected and worthwhile to read about.
Overall, Storytelling for Lawyers is not a bad book but could expand its scope. Recommended for both legal and non-legal readers.
Having said that, I do enjoy reading the running commentary of Meyer. The annotated excerpts of the two closing arguments are interesting both for legal practitioners and non-legal audiences who wish to learn more about literary analysis. Hs interdisciplinary comparisons among films, novels and legal texts are unexpected and worthwhile to read about.
Overall, Storytelling for Lawyers is not a bad book but could expand its scope. Recommended for both legal and non-legal readers.
May 27, 2019
For practicing attorneys who take joy in refining their craft, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
I was surprised to see the low-ish star rating of this book on Goodreads. This is a practical resource for practicing lawyers. It is far-and-away the most engaging thing I have ever read in that space. Meyer leverages the storytelling techniques he describes to keep the book moving, and also to convey heaps of useful material in a compact package.
With regard to the substance itself, perhaps if you were a lit major in college (and still remember everything you learned in college), you already will be familiar with the narrative techniques in this book. However, I am a trial lawyer who has watched many other trial lawyers try cases to juries. Most trial lawyers are not lit majors. They are people from diverse backgrounds who wanted to save the world or make a decent living. Many trial lawyers never truly focus on the emotional and cognitive flow needed to persuade a jury or judge. Some natural storytellers have "got it," and others have resigned themselves to never being more than B+ advocates. Even the intuitively effective lawyers too rarely examine what it is that makes them good, and do not develop into the lawyers they could become. What I see most often is that once a trial lawyer thinks they know how to try a case, they simply refer to that approach as their idiomatic style, and buck suggestions of change. The result is a widespread, formulaic mediocrity.
A few authors, though, have resisted the idea that some of us are simply better than others at the more arcane side of persuasion. They assert that pieces of trial magic can be taught. One example that jumps to mind is Terry MacCarthy's excellent reference on cross examination (MacCarthy on Cross-Examination). Meyer's Storytelling for Lawyers similarly deconstructs and explains narrative persuasion in a way that is engaging and easy to follow. Voice, pacing, structure, character, setting, and other topics are discussed clearly and simply. Meyer then suggests how to use these tools to best effect. When I first read this book a few years ago, I was excited to apply its concepts in practice, and they were delightfully effective.
Now having had the benefit of a few more years' experience, I realize that parts of Meyer's approach echo in some of the better trial practice academies out there, such as the National Criminal Defense College. You also can see it in the examinations and arguments of the more effective advocates, whether they are naturally persuasive or have had to work hard to develop their craft. But nowhere have I seen the subject of legal narrative persuasion dealt with in such a clear, straight-forward, and comprehensive manner as in this book. It has become one of my favorite dog-eared desk references, and I recommend it constantly.
When combined with lessons on public speaking and delivery (I personally love Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History's Greatest Speakers), Storytelling for Lawyers can help an advocate to become a truly formidable force. And as I mentioned at the outset, it is a quick and engaging read. For practicing attorneys who take joy in refining their craft, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
I was surprised to see the low-ish star rating of this book on Goodreads. This is a practical resource for practicing lawyers. It is far-and-away the most engaging thing I have ever read in that space. Meyer leverages the storytelling techniques he describes to keep the book moving, and also to convey heaps of useful material in a compact package.
With regard to the substance itself, perhaps if you were a lit major in college (and still remember everything you learned in college), you already will be familiar with the narrative techniques in this book. However, I am a trial lawyer who has watched many other trial lawyers try cases to juries. Most trial lawyers are not lit majors. They are people from diverse backgrounds who wanted to save the world or make a decent living. Many trial lawyers never truly focus on the emotional and cognitive flow needed to persuade a jury or judge. Some natural storytellers have "got it," and others have resigned themselves to never being more than B+ advocates. Even the intuitively effective lawyers too rarely examine what it is that makes them good, and do not develop into the lawyers they could become. What I see most often is that once a trial lawyer thinks they know how to try a case, they simply refer to that approach as their idiomatic style, and buck suggestions of change. The result is a widespread, formulaic mediocrity.
A few authors, though, have resisted the idea that some of us are simply better than others at the more arcane side of persuasion. They assert that pieces of trial magic can be taught. One example that jumps to mind is Terry MacCarthy's excellent reference on cross examination (MacCarthy on Cross-Examination). Meyer's Storytelling for Lawyers similarly deconstructs and explains narrative persuasion in a way that is engaging and easy to follow. Voice, pacing, structure, character, setting, and other topics are discussed clearly and simply. Meyer then suggests how to use these tools to best effect. When I first read this book a few years ago, I was excited to apply its concepts in practice, and they were delightfully effective.
Now having had the benefit of a few more years' experience, I realize that parts of Meyer's approach echo in some of the better trial practice academies out there, such as the National Criminal Defense College. You also can see it in the examinations and arguments of the more effective advocates, whether they are naturally persuasive or have had to work hard to develop their craft. But nowhere have I seen the subject of legal narrative persuasion dealt with in such a clear, straight-forward, and comprehensive manner as in this book. It has become one of my favorite dog-eared desk references, and I recommend it constantly.
When combined with lessons on public speaking and delivery (I personally love Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History's Greatest Speakers), Storytelling for Lawyers can help an advocate to become a truly formidable force. And as I mentioned at the outset, it is a quick and engaging read. For practicing attorneys who take joy in refining their craft, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
June 27, 2017
BOOK REVIEW: MEYER, Philip N., Storytelling for Lawyers
ISBN: 978-0-19-5396638
Read June, 13th-27th, 2017.
Notes on Legal Style by a Law Professor and Experienced Lawyer.
This book discusses storytelling tools by presenting a series of examples of good storytelling, both in legal settings and in literary works and movies. If theoretical explanations are sometimes a bit dry, the frequent quoting of practical examples conveys fluidity and speed to the book.
After an introduction presenting lawyers as storytellers, it deals with the roles played in storytelling by Plots (chapters 2 and 3); Character (4 and 5); Voice, Perspective, Details and Images, and Rhytm and Speed (which relate to Scene and Summary) (chapter 6); Place or Story Environment (chapter 7) and Narrative Time.
Focusing maybe too narrowly on legal storytelling before American juries, plot is almost equated with melodrama. Films like Jaws and High Noon are extensively discussed, as Gerry Spence’s Closing Argument on Behalf of Karen Silkwood. The chapters on character offer interesting insights on character classification (“round” characters, with psychological depth, prone to suffer transformation as the story evolves, vs. “flat” ones), while discussing the tools for telling how a character is, as opposed to simply showing the psychological nature of each character’s character through dialogue or the actions the character performs. Examples include Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and Jeremiah Donovan’s Closing Arguments on Behalf of Louis Failla, in a 13-week trial the Author could scrupulously attend in person.
Discussions on Voice, Perspective, Details and Images, Scene and Summary, criticize the basic assumptions of the neutrality of lawyers’ voices, exemplifies how to manage details to suggest ideas and emotions, draw on the distinction between showing and telling, and offers interesting insights into the narrative theory’s concept of stretch (the slowing of the narrative rhythm in relation to the narrated story’s). Environment depiction storytelling tools deals with Joan Didion’s The White Album and the Judicial Opinion in a Rape Case, quoting also from W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants and the Petition Briefs in Reck v. Ragen and Miranda v. Arizona. Further examples are Kathryn Harrison’s While They Slept and the Petitioner’s Brief in Eddings v. Oklahoma.
Finally, the chapter on Narrative Time draws on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and explores time, rhythm or speed, discussing more deeply stretch and the relation of time of the narrative itself with the time of the facts dealt with in the narrative. Chronology is discussed and criticized; Analepsis or Flashback is didactically explained and exemplified, both in general storytelling theory and in its legal use; the same holds for Prolepsis (Flash-forward) and Ellipsis (the intentional omission of a part of the narrative, often with the purpose of emphasizing the omitted event. Pacing and Rhythm are discussed in more lenght, with the caveat - repeated somewhat throughout the book - that legal stories are often left unfinished by the lawyer, in order to allow the jurors or judges fill the end with their decision.
The Author remarks his purpose was to suggest possible tools and ways of dealing with problems which arise in legal storytelling, and he delivers what he promises.
ISBN: 978-0-19-5396638
Read June, 13th-27th, 2017.
Notes on Legal Style by a Law Professor and Experienced Lawyer.
This book discusses storytelling tools by presenting a series of examples of good storytelling, both in legal settings and in literary works and movies. If theoretical explanations are sometimes a bit dry, the frequent quoting of practical examples conveys fluidity and speed to the book.
After an introduction presenting lawyers as storytellers, it deals with the roles played in storytelling by Plots (chapters 2 and 3); Character (4 and 5); Voice, Perspective, Details and Images, and Rhytm and Speed (which relate to Scene and Summary) (chapter 6); Place or Story Environment (chapter 7) and Narrative Time.
Focusing maybe too narrowly on legal storytelling before American juries, plot is almost equated with melodrama. Films like Jaws and High Noon are extensively discussed, as Gerry Spence’s Closing Argument on Behalf of Karen Silkwood. The chapters on character offer interesting insights on character classification (“round” characters, with psychological depth, prone to suffer transformation as the story evolves, vs. “flat” ones), while discussing the tools for telling how a character is, as opposed to simply showing the psychological nature of each character’s character through dialogue or the actions the character performs. Examples include Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and Jeremiah Donovan’s Closing Arguments on Behalf of Louis Failla, in a 13-week trial the Author could scrupulously attend in person.
Discussions on Voice, Perspective, Details and Images, Scene and Summary, criticize the basic assumptions of the neutrality of lawyers’ voices, exemplifies how to manage details to suggest ideas and emotions, draw on the distinction between showing and telling, and offers interesting insights into the narrative theory’s concept of stretch (the slowing of the narrative rhythm in relation to the narrated story’s). Environment depiction storytelling tools deals with Joan Didion’s The White Album and the Judicial Opinion in a Rape Case, quoting also from W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants and the Petition Briefs in Reck v. Ragen and Miranda v. Arizona. Further examples are Kathryn Harrison’s While They Slept and the Petitioner’s Brief in Eddings v. Oklahoma.
Finally, the chapter on Narrative Time draws on Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and explores time, rhythm or speed, discussing more deeply stretch and the relation of time of the narrative itself with the time of the facts dealt with in the narrative. Chronology is discussed and criticized; Analepsis or Flashback is didactically explained and exemplified, both in general storytelling theory and in its legal use; the same holds for Prolepsis (Flash-forward) and Ellipsis (the intentional omission of a part of the narrative, often with the purpose of emphasizing the omitted event. Pacing and Rhythm are discussed in more lenght, with the caveat - repeated somewhat throughout the book - that legal stories are often left unfinished by the lawyer, in order to allow the jurors or judges fill the end with their decision.
The Author remarks his purpose was to suggest possible tools and ways of dealing with problems which arise in legal storytelling, and he delivers what he promises.
August 9, 2018
There's a reason a lot of literature and writing majors end up in law school and this book provided a fascinating analysis of archetypes in legal storytelling. Meyer drew a parallel between trial arguments and movie plots from Jaws and High Noon and analyzed the storytelling strategies employed. Indeed, storytelling is often innate and so lawyers are not necessarily aware of their methods, but Meyer shows how arrangement of facts, summary, scene, dialogue, pacing and characterization can drastically change sympathy and understanding of events, causality, and the people involved. Thus, the two sides of a trial are often telling different stories and it's up to the jury to determine the ending. It was easy to get into and Chapters 1-4 were a breeze, but it did start to lag and repeat itself during the final chapters.
February 23, 2022
Aunque la idea del libro es muy buena, aplicar las técnicas del storytelling al ejercicio del derecho, lo cierto es que se diluye a lo largo del libro con unos ejemplos que no resultan convincentes. Acude a medios de expresión distintos como son el cine (dedica decenas de páginas a Tiburón y a Solo ante el peligro) o las novelas como Matadero 5 o A sangre fría y que tienen poco que ver con el derecho.
Tan solo se dedica a glosar algunos alegatos finales con extensísimos comentarios sobre los mismos y algunos elementos narrativos como los caracteres, el tiempo y el entorno.
El contenido no es tan interesante como pudiera parecer.
Tan solo se dedica a glosar algunos alegatos finales con extensísimos comentarios sobre los mismos y algunos elementos narrativos como los caracteres, el tiempo y el entorno.
El contenido no es tan interesante como pudiera parecer.
January 29, 2021
In Storytelling for Lawyers, Philip N. Meyer divulges the secrets of crafting the perfect legal argument. Following traditional literary tropes, the author reveals that the secret to winning cases is more in the framing than the facts. The book was engaging for academic nonfiction. I believe that all aspiring lawyers should read this book, because it certainly changed the way I see a lawyer's influence, better arming me against manipulation as an expert witness.
December 31, 2016
The caveat is how this book replicates what I learned as an English Literature major. Very well written, interesting anecdotes, and draws out why the standard techniques and modes of literary analysis are vital to developing successful legal arguments.
August 12, 2020
Interesting premise and some good takeaways. However this book really read like a dissertation with a lot of esoteric concepts. I’m just starting law school so the concepts seem foreign to me but I’ll revisit the text after my 1L year to see if it’s more accessible.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews