Acknowledgment

xi

1.

Introduction

1

I.

Lawyers Are Storytellers

1

II.

Legal Arguments Are Stories in Disguise

2

III.

The Parts of a Story

4

IV.

Movies and Closing Arguments

5

2.

Plotting I: The Basics

8

I.

What Is Plot?

8

II.

Plot Structure in Two Movies

20

3.

Plotting II: Plot Structure in a Closing Argument to a Jury in a Complex Torts Case

28

I.

The "Backstory"

30

II.

Annotated Excerpts from Gerry Spence's Closing Argument on Behalf of Karen Silkwood

31

III.

Concluding Observations

57

4.

Character Lessons: Character, Character Development, and Characterization

69

I.

Introduction: Why Emphasize Movie Characters in Legal Storytelling?

69

II.

What Is Character, and Why Is It Important to Legal Storytellers?

71

III.

Flat and Round Characters and Static and Changing Characters---High Noon Revisited

75

IV.

Techniques of Character Development and Characterization: Excerpts from Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life

82

5.

Characters, Character Development, and Characterization in a Closing Argument to a Jury in a Complex Criminal Case

90

I.

The "Backstory"

90

II.

Annotated Excerpts from Jeremiah Donovan's Closing Argument on Behalf of Louis Failla

93

III.

Concluding Observations

110

6.

Style Matters: How to Use Voice, Point of View, Details and Images, Rhythms of Language, Scene and Summary, and Quotations and Transcripts in Effective Legal Storytelling

115

I.

Backstory: Grading Law School Examinations

115

II.

Preliminary Note: "Voice" and "Style"

117

III.

Voice and Rhythm: "Staying on the Surface"

119

IV.

The Use of Scene and Summary: "Showing and Telling"

126

V.

Telling in Different Voices

130

VI.

Perspective or Point of View

138

VII.

Several Functions of Perspective: How Does Perspective (Point of View) Work, and What Work Does It Do?

140

VIII.

Concluding Observations

153

7.

A Sense of Place: Settings, Descriptions, and Environments

155

I.

Introduction

155

II.

Dangerous Territory: Contrasting Settings Evoking Danger and Instability in Joan Didion's "The White Album" and the Judicial Opinion in a Rape Case

158

III.

More Dangerous Places Where Bad Things Happen: Use of Physical Descriptions and Factual Details to Create Complex Environments in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants and the Petitioners' Briefs in Two Coerced Confession Cases

164

IV.

Settings and Environment as Villains and Villainy in the Mitigation Stories of Kathryn Harrison's While They Slept and the Petitioner's Brief in Eddings v. Oklahoma

175

V.

Concluding Observations

184

8.

Narrative Time: A Brief Exploration

185

I.

Introduction

185

II.

The Ordering of Discourse Time

187

III.

Concluding Observations

200

9.

Final Observations: Beginnings and Endings

202

Notes

211

Index

227