by Ryan H. Flax
(Former) Managing Director, Litigation Consulting & General Counsel
A2L Consulting

It’s always interesting to me how humans view and judge each other. We all do it almost all of the time, in every interaction with other people. We even do it when we don’t even interact with others, for example, while driving or watching TV. We develop little dramas and characters in our minds to make sense of the world around us and its characters.

This is particularly important in my profession, where my goal is to help litigators frame their case or showcase their client in a compelling and engaging way for judge or jury. I’ve just watched the video below and it highlights how important it is to frame our clients’ character correctly when we want a decision maker to see things our way. That “correct” way of introducing our client is whatever way will result in a decision in our favor – Ask: what would make the judge or jury feel our client should prevail?

What we see in this little experiment is the audience, here photographers, were introduced to their subject in a very specific way, that is, as a successful man, an alcoholic, a hero, a criminal, a working man, etc., and this framing of the character dictated how they saw that subject going forward. It also dictated how the photographers then presented the character to the world – in the photos they took. We see that the group of photographers themselves, upon reviewing each other’s photographs, noted that the subject/character looked like a completely different person in each of their pictures. To each of them, he was a completely different person and they judged him based on that framing.

So, this (non-scientific) experiment sheds light on the importance of how we frame and introduce our clients (and ourselves, too) to judges and juries. What we can honestly and convincingly convey to jurors about our client to make them a sympathetic, honorable, trustworthy, or dedicated (or whatever superlative you like) character, and, on the flip-side, portray our opposition as just the opposite, can go a long way toward providing the right lens through which your audience views your case and evidence.

Other A2L Consulting articles and resources related to storytelling and portraying your client's image intentionally:

• Portray Your Client As a Hero in 17 Easy Storytelling Steps
• 7 Things You Never Want to Say in Court
• 8 New Ways to Connect with Clients - How Our Litigation Consulting Firm Does It
• How NOT to Go to Court: Handling High Profile Clients
• Top 7 Things I've Observed as a Litigation Consultant
• 12 Alternative Fee Arrangements We Use and You Could Too
• Explaining the Value of Litigation Consulting to In-House Counsel
• The 14 Most Preventable Trial Preparation Mistakes
• Winning BEFORE Trial - Part 3 - Storytelling at Trial for Lawyers
• $300 Million of Litigation Consulting and Storytelling Validation