Washington Lawyer - November/December 2020 - 42

ON FURTHER RE VIEW

Persuasive Storytelling
Tenets for Lawyers
By Lloyd Liu

ffective trial lawyers are often
described as great storytellers.1
Storytelling is about more than
conveying a narrative. It's about
making a story compelling and
palpable.

Angie Kim is a proven storyteller, both as an
accomplished litigator and an acclaimed
novelist. Her courtroom thriller, Miracle Creek,
has received critical praise from The Washington
Post, New York Times, and too many others to list
here. Miracle Creek also is the winner of the
2020 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel
from the Mystery Writers of America and the
2020 Thriller Award for Best First Novel from the
International Thriller Writers. The Ninth Circuit
chose Miracle Creek for its judges' reading list
and noted that its use of courtroom scenes to
present the story were "exceptionally well
written." Before becoming a full-time writer,
Kim practiced law at Williams & Connolly LLP
and clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on
the Fourth Circuit.
Set in a fictional rural county in Virginia, Miracle
Creek features the trial of a woman accused of
setting fire to a hyperbaric oxygen therapy
chamber, resulting in death and disfigurement.
Much of the novel takes place in the courtroom.
It might seem backwards to try to draw lessons
about effective lawyering from a fiction writer.
After all, it's the guilty pleasure of most lawyers
and law students to ruthlessly eviscerate TV
shows and movies depicting the legal profession. But one thing to know about Kim is that
she knows what lawyers think when they
watch any legal drama. Somewhere out there is
a lawyers' edition of Miracle Creek, one filled
with all the procedures, rules, and techniques
they encounter in practice. In this edition

42 WASHINGTON LAWYER

lawyers would authenticate their exhibits,
debate motions in limine, and exclude witnesses from the courtroom.

blank sheet on which to transcribe information.
A judge and a jury need to be engaged, and
experienced trial lawyers are attuned to that.

But that's not the version that was published.2
And that actually says something about not just
what makes compelling fiction, but also which
trial aspects a lawyer ought to emphasize.

The hallmark of good writing is distilling things.
This is evident from the thoughtfulness of Kim's
approach. She says, "Simple, clear, precise
writing is so much more important than
anything else. Make sure that people can follow
what you're saying and that your transitions
from one idea to the next are super clear. It's so
much more important than using big words."

In Miracle Creek, both the prosecutor and
defense attorney are performers. They do
things like feign surprise at facts they already
know and express anger or sadness in response
to testimony they've heard before. I asked Kim
what she thinks about performative behavior
like this. Some might think it's disingenuous,
but she offers another view: "In a way you're
performing and you're acting, but in another
way, you're being a facilitator for the judge and
the jury. What you're saying is, 'This is the kind
of reaction you should be having.'"
Persuasive storytelling very much demands
laying out motivation. Kim says, "If a case is
more complicated, you really need to bring the
human element into it. One thing that I realized
in writing fiction is that it doesn't matter how
implausible or plausible something is as long
as you can explain the motivation."
This is echoed by others. Jonathan Shapiro,
author of Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Story-
telling, describes motivation as a "code of causality."3 This goes directly to persuasion, to
helping your audience understand your point
of view. Details matter.

That isn't new advice, but taken with everything else, it's a statement that emphasizes
paying attention to what's important and not
falling too much in love with the sometimestechnocratic practice of law. Kim did away
with her lawyers' edition of Miracle Creek
because the streamlined version spoke to
a broader audience. That's important to
keep in mind.
Lloyd Liu is a partner at Bennett Doyle LLP, where
he focuses on white-collar defense, government
investigations, and complex civil litigation.

NOTES

1 See Philip N. Meyer, "How to Shape Your Legal
Storytelling," ABA Journal (October 1, 2014),
abajournal.com/magazine/article/shaping_
your_legal_storytelling; Jonathan Shapiro,
Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Storytelling: Using
Stories to Advocate, Influence, and Persuade (2014).

Describing trial lawyers as great storytellers
acknowledges that how you say something is
just as important as what you say. On this point,
Kim notes the importance of cadence. When
she writes a sentence or a paragraph, she reads
it out loud using inflection, paying attention to
the rhythm of the sounds.

2 In fact, Kim has written an article about this.
Angie Kim, "How Not to Write Courtroom
Scenes," CrimeReads (April 17, 2019), crimereads.
com/how-not-to-write-courtroom-scenes.

How something sounds aesthetically is a key
part of storytelling. Your audience isn't just a

3 Shapiro, Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Storytelling
at 74.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/shaping_

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