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Visual Storytelling Key To Courtroom Success

By Erin Coe

Law360, New York (February 19, 2010) -- When litigator James R. Evans Jr. was preparing

to defend client Coach USA LLC in a $1 billion proposed class action of more than 1,000 taxi

drivers claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors, he wanted to paint a

picture for the court of how inefficient it would be to try the case as a class action.

After teaming up with visual storytelling firm The Huck Group, the Fulbright & Jaworski LLP
partner went before the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego and displayed

a series of images, including one of an array of different colored bubbles.

“The thousands of individualized issues were all colored bubbles, and the colors
corresponded to the named plaintiffs,” Evans said. “The graphic represented that there were
far more individualized issues than common issues.”

The combination of the image and the facts Evans used to demonstrate the existence of

thousands of individualized issues led the court in April 2009 to deny class certification to
the cab drivers, who have since appealed the case.

Evans, who has pulled in the storytelling firm on several cases over the past five years, says
the dynamic process of honing in on a core message in a case and developing a visual
representation of that message has helped him become a better storyteller before a judge

and jury.

“At first blush, the image may make no sense, but as soon as I begin telling a story, the

image comes to life and has meaning. Jurors remember that large board with the image and
they remember what I had to say,” he said.

A challenge that lawyers continue to face is how to get their message to sink in when the

subject at hand is dry or complex, but experts who specialize in visual storytelling
techniques can help attorneys not only get their point across, but make it resonate with the

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people who count: judges and jurors.

The problem is that most lawyers are not trained to be storytellers, according to Dana K.
Cole, an associate professor of law at the University of Akron and a former trial lawyer.

Whether dealing with a claim of personal injury or breach of contract, law school teaches
students how to break down a claim in elements and deconstruct the facts, he said.

“That’s vital to a lawyer, but it’s death to a story. It’s like dissecting a frog to see what’s

inside. You may learn a lot that way, but the frog is never going to hop again,” Cole said.

Cole said his whole approach as a trial lawyer changed in 1995 when he attended the Trial

Lawyers College in Wyoming, which offers a program for plaintiffs lawyers and criminal
defense lawyers to tap into the power of storytelling.

“Rather than put on the mantle of a lawyer and try to portray what the jury expects of you
as a polished lawyer, the college makes an overt attempt for you to discover who you are as
a human being and bring more of that to the process as a trial lawyer,” said Cole, who now
serves on the Trial Lawyers College’s board of directors.

Cole said the college taught him that it is not as important to be the best lawyer in the room
as it is to be the most credible human being in the room.

“If the jury forgets that you’re a lawyer and sees you as a teacher or guide, you’ve done a

great job,” he said.

The college uses role-playing exercises to help lawyers see a trial from the vantage point of

the client or the witness, according to Cole. The lawyers also learn the physical gestures
involved in telling a story so that jurors can be transported, for example, to the scene of a

crime, he said.

“The physical moves can be more important than the language. It’s about showing, not just
telling,” Cole said.

Juliet Huck, CEO of The Huck Group, is focused on using visuals to highlight a consistent
theme in a case. With a background in graphic design and advertising, Huck started the Los-

Angeles based trial support firm more than 10 years ago when she realized that lawyers

were missing out on an opportunity to design presentation materials that were not only
informative, but persuasive.

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She has put together graphics, PowerPoint presentations and other visual aids to break

down Exxon Mobil Corp.’s arctic drilling process before the Alaska Department of Natural
Resources and show key time lines as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s case against
Enron Corp.

“It’s not just about graphics. It’s about visually explaining a complicated process, technology

or a contract,” Huck said. “It’s about creating a relationship to the subject matter.”

An image can go a long way, but the facts have to back it up, Evans added.

“It is so much more powerful for someone to see an actual document with a critical

admission in it behind a witness who is testifying to the contrary than for someone to read

the contradictory statement,” he said. “It creates credibility as long as you can support
what’s up there.”

Some lawyers automatically understand the importance of telling a good narrative, but
others will never get it, said Diane Wyzga, founder of trial consulting firm Lightning Rod
Communications.

“There’s a resistance from some lawyers in leaving behind the way of having done

something and embracing another view that feels foreign because it is not quite what they
were taught in law school,” she said.

While Wyzga works with lawyers to drill down through the facts of a case to find the heart of
the story that they can get behind and advocate, she also helps them pull back to look at
the larger context.

She assisted a lawyer in prevailing in a California state case representing a woman who

claimed she was constructively terminated after resigning from a company.

After a disgruntled former employee tracked down and killed several of his co-workers, the
plaintiff tried to get the firm to help employees who were suffering from post-traumatic

stress disorder, but the firm silenced her and she saw no other choice but to leave,

according to Wyzga.

But Wyzga said that by looking at the context — that the company was a security firm that

had drawn more business following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — the case began to come
into focus.

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“What if it became known that it could not control the terrorist in its own firm?” Wyzga said.
“When you pull back the lens of the camera and look at the larger picture, you can

understand what is going on. This was a firm that was afraid its name would be damaged

and it would lose business, and the only way to keep that from happening was to silence the
employee.”

To help put a case in perspective, Wyzga often advises lawyers not to automatically see a

case from their client’s position.

“Don’t think of a story from your client’s point of view until you tell the story from every

other possible way,” she said.

Evans said getting feedback from a third party can be helpful because it forces him to look
at a case from new angles and wrestle with questions that a jury or judge may ask.

“Sometimes you become so enmeshed in your own case and you understand the case so
well, it takes someone else to stand back and look at the mess of facts, and ask, ‘How do
we break this down and simplify?’” he said.

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