The Power of Storytelling in Law School (and Barrington Gifts Promo Code)

In college I was an English and French double major. One of the English electives I took was a class called “Investigating Innocence,” where the Journalism department and Wake Forest School of Law worked to craft a story to help a criminal client who was wrongfully accused.

I talk about this class a lot because it really was the coolest class I have ever taken. It combined my love for writing and researching with my passion for the law. (I even wrote my personal statement for my law school applications about this class). This class helped me pinpoint exactly why I wanted to go to law school: to help tell stories. I have known from a young age that I wanted to go to law school, but I really couldn’t articulate it, until I took this class.

In my first year of law school, I didn’t tell many stories. I mostly read them in case briefs and I did write a couple in the form of memos for my legal writing class.

But I am currently in a class where I am circling back to the theme of storytelling and the importance of it in the field of law in my Foundational Lawyering class.

My friends aren’t big fans of the class. Personally, I like parts of it and think parts of it are important, others not so much. But pretty much this class makes you think and act like a lawyer.

It is reminding us how to tell stories and how to question clients and witnesses. 

After a year of not being able to write anything but memos that are cut and dry in class (I’m thankful that I have T&P to continue to creatively write) we are now reminded the importance of storytelling to help clients get their points heard by the jury and the judge. We have been reminded of the importance of describing the setting, the characters, the who, what, where, when, why and the chronology.

It feels nice that I am being retaught and retold that stories are important in the legal field.

 

Besides that class, I am also writing a Note for my journal. The editors are stressing to the 2L staff that we have to tell a story to grab our reader’s attention in our introduction. It feels so nice to write something academic that is flowery and descriptive but at the same time argumentative and strong.

 

I am so happy that two of my favorite academic things: storytelling and the law are combined once again and are proved to be important. It is a good reminder, as the semester gets more stressful (and discouraging), why I wanted to go to law school in the first place. 

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