Chapter 1 - Introduction 1
I. Lawyers are Storytellers 1
II. Legal Arguments are Stories in Disguise 3
III. The Parts of a Story 4
IV. Movies and Closing Arguments 6
Chapter 2 - Plotting I: The Basics 11
I. What is Plot? 11
II. Plot Structure in Two Movies 28
Chapter 3 - Plotting II: Plot Structure in a Closing Argument to a Jury in a
Complex Torts Case 44
I. The "Back Story" 47
II. Annotated Excerpts from Spence's Closing Argument on Behalf of Karen
Silkwood 48
III. Concluding Observations 85
Chapter 4 - Character Lessons: Character, Character Development, and
Characterization 110
I. Introduction: Why Emphasize Movie Characters in Legal Storytelling? 110
II. What is Character, and Why Is It Important to Legal Storytellers? 113
III. Flat and Round Characters and Static and Changing
Characters-High Noon Revisited 119
IV. Techniques of Character Development and Characterization-Excerpts
from Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life 131
Chapter 5 - Characters, Character Development, and Characterization in a
Closing Argument to a Jury in a Complex Criminal Case 147
I. The "Back Story" 147
II. Excerpts from the Opening: Act I-"The Setup" and "Confrontation" 151
III. Concluding Observations 173
Chapter 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 185
I. Back Story: Grading Law School Examinations 185
II. Preliminary Note: "Voice" and "Style" 188
III. Voice and Rhythm: "Staying on the Surface" 191
IV. The Use of Scene and Summary: "Showing and Telling" 201
V. Telling in Different Voices 208
VI. Perspective or Point of View 220
VII. Several Functions of Perspective: How Does Perspective (Point of View)
Work, and What Work Does it Do? 225
VIII. Concluding Observations 245
Chapter 7 - A Sense of Place: Settings, Descriptions and Environments 252
I. Introduction 252
II. Dangerous Territory: Contrasting Settings Evoking Danger and Instability in
Joan Didion's "The White Album" and the Judicial Opinion in a Rape Case 255
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 266
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 283
V. Concluding Observations 298
Chapter 8 - Narrative Time: A Brief Exploration 302
I. Introduction 302
II. The Ordering of Discourse Time 305
III. Concluding Observations 325
Chapter 9 - Final Observations: Beginnings and Endings 330