The Trial as Performance: Storytelling, Character, and Presence in the Courtroom

This session explores the powerful parallels between trial advocacy and theatrical performance, examining how both disciplines require truthful communication by trained professionals. Participants will learn about the three roadblocks to effective advocacy—lack of storytelling skill, fear, and lack of empathy—and why authenticity cannot be faked in the courtroom.

This session examines the five-act structure of trial—voir dire, opening statement, direct examination, cross-examination, and closing argument—through the lens of theatrical storytelling. Participants will discover how to create tension that demands resolution and why courtroom advocacy is moved by word and presence rather than image.

This session focuses on how internal states transform external presentation and why the tension between what you feel and what you reveal creates compelling advocacy. Participants will explore how vulnerability functions as strength and learn that juries are sophisticated lie detectors who respond to genuine presence.

This session emphasizes that thorough preparation is the foundation that allows attorneys to be spontaneous and present in the moment. Participants will learn strategies for making friends with fear, tearing down walls of ego and selfishness, and how hard work becomes change in your pocket that emerges naturally when needed.