By Anthony Might and Lauren DiMartino
Attorneys are skilled to assume when it comes to guidelines, precedent, and argument. However in apply, our most persuasive software isn’t all the time authorized evaluation—it’s the story we inform.
Each case is, at its core, a human narrative. And whereas the legislation calls for readability and logic, decision-makers—judges, juries, arbitrators, and the general public at giant—reply most deeply to tales which can be vivid, trustworthy, and purposeful.
Why Storytelling Issues in Legislation
A robust authorized story is greater than only a timeline. It has characters, battle, and penalties. It reveals as an alternative of simply telling. And it positions your shopper inside a broader body of that means—whether or not as an individual wronged, a neighborhood member striving for equity, or a survivor searching for redress.
After all, all tales are distinctive. The alternatives you make—what info to incorporate, the best way to sequence occasions, who will get named and who doesn’t—form how your shopper is perceived and whether or not your authorized place resonates.
When finished nicely, this type of storytelling does three issues:
- Engages the reader.
- Humanizes the shopper.
- Anchors the authorized argument in real-world influence.
Writing With Objective
Each reality you write ought to serve one in every of three functions:
- Authorized – Does this reality assist or problem a key authorized factor?
- Background – Does it assist present context to the reader, so that they perceive the large image?
- Emotional – Does it convey a way of thinking, evoke empathy or prejudice, or spotlight stakes?
Even when the info don’t change—their association and emphasis can radically alter their emotional and rhetorical influence. That’s the ability, and the duty, of authorized storytelling.
How Voice Shapes Accountability
One other important storytelling software is voice—particularly, energetic versus passive development. We’re typically taught to solely use energetic voice in authorized writing, however the intentional use of passive voice can obscure company and scale back emotional readability, which will be the aim in some situations (normally for defendants).
Examine these two variations of the identical occasion:
- On January 2, 2020, the entrance door of Francis’s home was kicked in and he or she was attacked.
→ This model facilities the occasion, not the one that prompted it. The reader is aware of what occurred, however not who did it. - On January 2, 2020, the defendant kicked within the door of Francis’s home and attacked her.
→ This model is clearer, extra forceful, and assigns direct duty. It’s additionally extra vivid and emotionally partaking.
Small linguistic selections like these can remodel how the reader experiences the story—and the way they reply to it.
The Storytelling Framework
To construct a persuasive narrative, think about these parts:
- Scope: What’s the central battle? What story are you selecting to inform?
- Casting: Who is known as? Are your purchasers given full identities whereas adversaries are genericized—or vice versa? For instance:
- Referring to somebody as “a prisoner” vs. “Mr. Smith” sends a message.
- Though we usually seek advice from a plaintiff with the usage of a salutation (“Mr. Doe”) when writing a grievance about abuse that came about whereas the plaintiff was a toddler, referring to them by their first title (John) could resonate extra with the reader.
- Plot: How do the occasions unfold? What particulars construct stress or decision?
- Time Body: When does the story start? When does the difficulty begin? When is redress doable?
- Contemplate the usage of time transitions (e.g., “weeks later,” “shortly after”) so as to add motion and construct momentum.
- Human Plight: What’s at stake to your shopper? How may a plaintiff go away the story versus the defendant?
- For instance, a plaintiff could need to go away a narrative extra open ended: it’s the jury that has energy to find out how a narrative ends.
- Setting: Can the reader image the scene? Scent the hallway? Hear the door slam?
Good authorized writers make these selections deliberately—not only for readability, however for persuasion.
The Ethics of Storytelling: Enter Vital Rhetoric
Efficient storytelling isn’t simply strategic. It’s moral.
Trauma-informed lawyering means crafting tales that empower fairly than retraumatize and being vigilant about language that reinforces dangerous stereotypes.
We should ask:
- Whose voice is being centered?
- Who’s being described as a full particular person—and who as a class?
- Are we inviting the reader right into a lived expertise, or maintaining them at a scientific take away?
Vital rhetoric challenges attorneys to consider how conventional authorized language can reinforce programs of energy. We as attorneys have an moral obligation to make use of our energy in accountable methods. We encourage readers to think about legislation as a type of important rhetoric and to think about how the language utilized in your arguments contributes to or deconstructs dangerous historic patterns and inequities embedded within the legislation.
For instance, the idea of reasonableness is commonly handled as impartial—however in apply, it might probably erase context and perpetuate dominant norms. Who decides what’s “cheap”? And whose experiences are ignored of that calculus? When the usual of reasonableness was developed what teams of individuals weren’t thought of to have cause by default?
In her TED Discuss, “The Hazard of a Single Story,” writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses the inherent energy within the skill to inform the story of one other particular person, however reminds us of the chance in making it the definitive story of that particular person.
As Professor Teri McMurtry-Chubb has argued, authorized rhetoric shapes actuality. If we’re not cautious, the legislation may be rhetoric that entrenches dangerous thought patterns about privilege and energy, invisibilize trauma, or justify inequity by dressing up biased assumptions within the guise of objectivity.
Phrases Create Outcomes
Authorized tales matter. They don’t simply clarify occasions; they form judgments, have an effect on settlements, and affect precedent. Most significantly, when finished proper, they vindicate and empower our purchasers and win the favor of the general public.
So, the subsequent time you draft a Assertion of Details, ask your self:
- What story am I telling?
- How do my phrase selections form that story?
- Am I making house for empathy and humanity?
As a result of legislation isn’t just about guidelines. It’s about folks. And essentially the most enduring advocacy—whether or not it’s trial, an attraction, or pre-litigation negotiations—begins with a narrative that comes alive to the reader.
Brown, Goldstein & Levy supplies the very best high quality authorized companies to a broad vary of purchasers, with out sacrificing our deep sense of neighborhood and social duty. By elevating our purchasers’ voices and preventing for his or her rights, we search to deliver a couple of extra simply world—typically one dispute at a time, typically by systemic change. In case you or a cherished one is experiencing a authorized challenge, think about contacting us as we speak to debate your state of affairs.
This weblog was tailored from the presentation Anthony and Lauren gave on the Maryland State Bar Affiliation’s 2025 Authorized Summit.
