As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my classes this semester is Lawyering Skills II. (For information on Lawyering Skills I, take a look at this post.) Both Lawyering Skills I & II are required courses at the William H. Bowen School of Law here in Little Rock. Although LS I is ungraded (pass/fail) and worth only 2 credits, LS II is worth 3 credits and is graded.
While I am sure that this is a class that some people dread, it has great potential to be one of my favorites. At least once a week each student will stand in front of their workshop class (~8 students) and speak. Law Skills II, is essentially an introductory Mock Trial class. This week we had to give a 5-8 minute Opening Statement. Next week half of the class will question a “witness” on direct, and the other half will cross examine that same witness. As soon as each student finishes their statement, the instructor, a practicing litigator, offers advice based on their strengths and weaknesses. I can almost guarantee that any student who hates public speaking and/or receiving public criticism will hate this class.
This type of class is much more up my alley than Moot Court was. Trial advocacy is quite a different beast than Appellate advocacy. Whether it be the cases in our casebooks, the briefs we’ve written, or any of the oral arguments we made in RWA II or Moot Court, most of what we have been doing in law school so far is centered around appellate level cases. Lawyering Skills II switches the focus onto the trial.
I wanted to share something that I borrowed from a presentation created by a lawyer, Dale T. Cobb, Jr., titled ACTING FOR LAWYERS: Welcome to the Theater of the Absurd:
The art of story telling dwindles with every passing generation, and with it goes the power to move; to change; to persuade. To tell a story well is to weave a tapestry of the spoken word with the use of our bodies as instruments. To bring a story to life requires raw talent enhanced by rehearsal, genius, improvisation, and most importantly by the wisdom to know the difference.
The true artist can bring to life the theme or plot of the story in a single line or gesture. A now deceased trial lawyer who tried scores of railroad crossing accident case in his career would begin his closing thusly:
“Ladies and gentlemen; this man represents steel and steam. I represent flesh and blood.”
The lawyer who does not grasp the premise that a jury is an audience waiting to be entertained, caressed, wooed, and thereby persuaded, does a disservice to his or her client and to the profession as a whole.
All I can say is… BRING IT ON!