The ABA Journal
March 1, 1987
Lights, Camera...Objection!: Lawyers' acting course stresses counsel's ease, believabilty

Professional free-lance director Gillian Drake, once a student of method acting teacher Stella Adler, teaches lawyers how to be more natural, believable and comfortable with juries and clients.

The course begins with an overview of basic acting techniques, and then goes step by step through exercises targeted to improve imagination, description and overall presence.

One problem with lawyers is that they let "yellow legal pads get stuck in their brains," Drake said. She tries to correct that by "taking the legalese out of the lawyers."

Walter Christense, a partner with Ross, Dixon & Massback of Washington, D.C., whose clients include Washington Redskins football players, said the course helped him "be a bit more energetic in my presentation."

"It takes something that you may know intuitively, and puts it in a framework," said Christensen. "The most valuable aspect was forcing you to focus on the most central element of a case--and make a presentation that will convince a jury--rather than spit out everything you know."

New York University law professor Linda Silberman took the course last year during a sabbatical as an appellate lawyer in the Civil Division of the Justice Department. The acting class helped tone down her aggressive style.

While law schools are busy teaching legal substance and theory, Silberman noted, they don't have time to develop a lawyer's style. She suggested lawyers my need outside hel in "customizing those legal skills to your professional life."

R. Harrison Pledger, a past chairman of the ABA's Section of Tort and Insurance Practic who practices law in D.C., argues. "The course is not based on deception...You learn more about how to present the client's case effectively, your tone of voice, choice of words, and the movements to emphasize what you're saying."

Drake summarizes her work as helping lawyers make the law a bit more personal. "Every case has a legal theme, but it also has a human theme, and lawyers have to find that."