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32 Rutgers L.J. 459 (2000-2001)
Fiction 101: A Primer for Lawyers on How to Use Fiction Writing Techniques to Write Persuasive Facts Sections

handle is hein.journals/rutlj32 and id is 485 raw text is: FICTION 101: A PRIMER FOR LAWYERS ON HOW TO USE FICTION WRITING TECHNIQUES TO WRITE PERSUASIVE FACTS SECTIONSt Brian J. Foley* & Ruth Anne Robbins** I. INTRODUCTION Go that way, very fast, and if something gets in your way, turn.1 A lawyer hearing a ski instructor give this advice to a skier at the top of a slope would prepare for a malpractice suit. But for years we lawyers have accepted similarly question-begging advice from our professors and more senior lawyers, who instruct, in writing the facts section of briefs and memoranda, Tell a story and Don't bore your reader, without ever explaining how. A review of the most popular legal writing textbooks reveals the same gap.2 This gap is glaring, especially since most lawyers t This paper is based on a presentation we gave at the Biennial Legal Writing Institute Conference on July 22, 2000, at Seattle University School of Law, and is part of what we teach in our continuing legal education program, Storytelling for Lawyers: How to Use the Most Powerful Tool of Persuasion to Win Your Cases. For encouragement and help on this article we wish to thank the Legal Writing Institute; Mary Ellen Maatman, Associate Professor and Director of Legal Methods, Widener University School of Law; Anne Enquist, Writing Advisor, Seattle University School of Law; Linda Holdeman Edwards, Professor of Law and Director of Legal Writing, Mercer University; Rayman Solomon, Dean, Rutgers University School of Law-Camden; Susan A. King, Reference Librarian, Rutgers University School of Law-Camden; Edmund B. Luce, Legal Methods Professor and Director of Graduate Programs, Widener University School of Law; Dino Capasso, Third Year Law Student, Rutgers University School of Law-Camden; Lisa Raufer, Second Year Law Student, Rutgers University School of Law-Camden; Alan B. Epstein, Esq., Spector Gadon & Rosen P.C., Philadelphia, P.A.; and M.G. Piety, Visiting Professor, Drexel University. * Legal Methods Professor and Director of Continuing Legal Education Programs, Widener University School of Law. A.B., Dartmouth College; J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. ** Clinical Attorney, Supervising Attorney, Rutgers Pro Bono Domestic Violence Project, Rutgers School of Law-Camden; Legal Writing Faculty, Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. B.A., University of Pennsylvania; J.D., Rutgers School of Law-Camden. 1. BETTER OFF DEAD (Warner Bros. 1985). 2. See, e.g., RUGGERO J. ALDISERT, WINNING ON APPEAL: BETTER BRIEFS AND ORAL ARGUMENT 156 (Revised 1st ed. 1996); LINDA HOLDEMAN EDWARDS, LEGAL WRITING: PROCESS, ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATION 341-43 (2d ed. 1999); BRYAN A. GARNER, THE WINNING BRIEF: 100 Tips FOR PERSUASIVE BRIEFING IN TRIAL AND APPELLATE COURTS 310-11 (1999); RICHARD K. NEUMANN, JR., LEGAL REASONING AND LEGAL WRITING: STRUCTURE,

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