Many lawyers found law school to be a blessing and a curse. You gained an immense amount of knowledge regarding case laws, statutes, and how to think analytically. You learned and refined your skills arguing both sides of a case logically. But Trial Guides customers tell us that law school never them how to handle a jury trial, or its basic skills like how to create a story from the case facts. Or how minor differences in your interpretation and presentation can make or break your case in the courtroom. This is the purpose of Trial Guides - teaching lawyers at all levels of experience how to improve their skills and results in today's courtrooms. All taught by successful trial lawyers and trial consultants.
In Winning with Stories, Inner Circle of Advocates member and advocacy professor, Jim Perdue, analyzes narrative elements in detail, showing how to craft a story with a strong beginning, memorable scenes, believable characters, a logical plot, vivid action, and a moving conclusion. Beyond this, Perdue demonstrates how to tell the story to maximum effect, with concepts as broad as giving "soul" to the story, and covering other details as specific as what the lawyer should wear.
Far more than a practical analysis of storytelling, Winning with Stories is also an invaluable anthology of stories, including illustrative examples of actual opening statements and closing arguments to inspire juries. Perdue includes examples of metaphors, similes, clichés, analogies, quotations, poetry, personal anecdotes, and humor, tracing their historical roots in the Bible, children's stories, books, movies, plays, and folklore.
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Every Jim Perdue book is on my shelf, but the one on storytelling and analogies won't ever have any dust settle on top… it's Jim's best work.
—Don Keenan, co-author of Reptile, and past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates