Julie Klyce
The Montgomery Journal
July 27, 1994
Acting Up In Court

EXCERPTED

Consultant helps lawyers persuade juries

Lawyers have problems expressing themselves in the courtroom, and Gillian Drake knows how to help.

"It's all about performance and creating a relationship," said the Rockville independent theater director and voice instructor turned trial consultant.

Drake began coaching lawyers in 1985 when a local attorney approached her for help in presenting a case. Shortly afterward, nine lawyers responded to an advertisement for her first "Acting for Lawyers" class.

While still a free-lance theater director, Drake, 39, teaches an eight-week course for lawyers and offers private consulting.

Drake's biggest challenge is getting lawyers to ignore their formal law school training once they enter the courtroom. Jurors can't relate, and judges are bored to tears, she said.

"Lawyers are trained to deal with the literal meaning of words. Literal thinking is the opposite of theatrical thinking. They're very married to their yellow pads," Drake said in a recent interview. "Lawyerese is a very passive voice filled with Latin construct."

In reality, jurors want to see lawyers who act naturally and believe in what they are saying, she said.

"Get them to be committed to what they are saying. Their client's story is in them; they have to give it away," Drake said with her arms flung wide open.

A small woman with librarian glasses and unremarkable brown hair, Drake could sell fire to the devil.

"She's more dramatic than other consultants," said Anthony Newman, a Rockville lawyer whom Drake helps with trial consulting. "She's more of an actress, and that's more effective. I prefer to have something that increases drama."

A former pharmacist, Newman handles mostly medical malpractice lawsuits. Recently Drake helped him to prepare a case against a Washington hospital in which the victim, his client, was awarded $1.9 million. The victim claimed the hospital used her pregnancy for experimentation, Newman said.

Drake showed Newman "how to tell a gruesome tale in a way that builds emotion without overselling it. I didn't want to sound like Boris Karloff," he said.

On Tuesday Drake and Newman conducted a mock jury for another malpractice suit that goes to trial today.

The jury's input caused Newman to change the focus of his case, and he went to New York Wednesday to take another deposition with an expert witness based on its recommendations, he said.

Besides providing a practice run, the mock jury helps gauge the amount of money they should ask for and reveals details that need to be explained through argument or witnesses, Newman said.

Several attorneys have sought Drake's help with presenting arguments to the appellate courts, which are a vastly different animal than peer juries, she said.

Appellate judges have read the arguments, studied the case and are well-versed in the law. Lawyers must pick the single most important aspect of their argument and exude confidence to prevent interruptions from the panel, Drake said.

Drake has witnessed several failed appellate arguments: "They ate the minnow alive. They want your confidence. If they don't have it they chew you up."

While Tuesday's consultation was with a plaintiff's lawyer, Drake said 80 percent of her business comes from defense cases where witnesses are key.

Drake coaches witnesses and bridges the gaps between their stories and what the lawyers think will win the cases.

Again, it's a confidence issue.

"Fear looks like guilt," Drake said. "Give them [witnesses] back the authoritative story, truth."

Ethically and for the sake of having good witnesses, Drake said, she and lawyers are careful not to tell witnesses what to say but try to coax the truth from them.

Requests from the opposing side for discovery has been another issue for Drake's consulting business, On Trial. So far pretrial consulting has been protected as attorney's work, she said.

Drake believes her company is one of about three in the country that combines acting and law.

Trials are one step better than theater, she said. "It's so close to theater, but the stakes are much higher. People's lives are changed."

When in session, "Acting for Lawyers" meets once a week for several hours. In the first portion of each class Drake works with students on physical aspects of performing, such as breathing, anxiety and stage fright, any one of which can paralyze the actor. In the last hour or so students work on one opening statement, which is perfected over the eight-week period.

For practice Drake's students often must try to breathe life into boring prose while reading aloud.

"Make them soothe. Make them apologize. Make them roar," she said. "If you activate the words, it's much easier to activate the performance."

Drake's class costs $475. Mock trials range from $3,000 to $10,000, depending on how many panelists the law firm wants to employ, Drake said.