55. Tell It to the Judge, with Judge Randall Warner and Judge Christopher Whitten

Maricopa County Superior Court Judges Randall Warner and Christopher Whitten team up to talk about telling stories to judges. In this episode, the judges, from their unique vantage point on the bench, reveal what they want to hear or read from counsel, what they don’t, how to write briefs that tell a compelling narrative, where they find inspired (and inspiring) storytelling, and the summer vacations they’re dreaming of.
Topics

4:11 Why storytelling matters
7:04 Judges’ versus jurors’ needs
10:35 Storytelling techniques
14:30 Finding inspiration
19:10 Great legal storytellers
21:14 Advantages for both sides of “the v”
24:09 Writing interesting briefs
28:57 Telling the same story at trial as in briefs
30:29 Judges’ pet peeves in briefs
34:40 Opposing counsel’s miscasting your client
38:42 Storytelling about unsympathetic clients
41:47 Signoff questions
Quotes

“Fundamentally, every case is about a story, whether it’s a technical legal dispute or whether it’s a fact dispute at trial, it’s a competition to see whose story resonates more with whoever’s making the decision, whether it’s a judge or jury.” Judge Randall Warner

“Even as we’ve tried cases less and less often, we’ve gotten better and better at collecting facts, and I think that’s made us worse and worse at storytelling.” Judge Christopher Whitten

Resources

Judge Randall Warner (bio) (episode)
Judge Christopher Whitten (bio) (episode)
Building Trial Skills: San Diego (course)
Dominic Gianna on MTRR (episode, episode)
James Brosnahan on MTRR (episode)

David Mann storytelling (course) (episode)