May the Record Reflect
If you’re a litigator or trial lawyer, your life is full—in and out of the courtroom. May the Record Reflect is the podcast of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and we know that if something related to lawyering is interesting to us, chances are it’s interesting to you, too. Trial skills, office life, personal development, and more—it’s all fair game on May the Record Reflect.
May the Record Reflect
55. Tell It to the Judge, with Judge Randall Warner and Judge Christopher Whitten
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National Institute for Trial Advocacy
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Episode 55
Maricopa County Superior Court Judges Randall Warner and Christopher Whitten team up to talk about telling stories to judges. In this episode, the judges, from their unique vantage point on the bench, reveal what they want to hear or read from counsel, what they don’t, how to write briefs that tell a compelling narrative, where they find inspired (and inspiring) storytelling, and the summer vacations they’re dreaming of.
Topics
Topics
4:11 Why storytelling matters
7:04 Judges’ versus jurors’ needs
10:35 Storytelling techniques
14:30 Finding inspiration
19:10 Great legal storytellers
21:14 Advantages for both sides of “the v”
24:09 Writing interesting briefs
28:57 Telling the same story at trial as in briefs
30:29 Judges’ pet peeves in briefs
34:40 Opposing counsel’s miscasting your client
38:42 Storytelling about unsympathetic clients
41:47 Signoff questions
Quotes
“Fundamentally, every case is about a story, whether it’s a technical legal dispute or whether it’s a fact dispute at trial, it’s a competition to see whose story resonates more with whoever’s making the decision, whether it’s a judge or jury.” Judge Randall Warner
“Even as we’ve tried cases less and less often, we’ve gotten better and better at collecting facts, and I think that’s made us worse and worse at storytelling.” Judge Christopher Whitten
Resources