Heroes and Villains: The Lawyer's Narrative in Fact and Fiction, UCLA

Storytelling is not a metaphor for legal advocacy. It is legal advocacy itself. This course uses a single book and fictional stories about lawyers in film and television to understand what narrative is, why it is so effective in conveying information and persuading others, and how lawyers can improve their use of narrative in every aspect of their profession.Each class session will screen, analyze, and discuss a law-related fictional work, focusing on the rhetorical elements of the narrative and particular problems of legal ethics, the practice of law, issues of substantive law and public policy. Students will be assessed on class attendance and a short take-home final exam. The course is only offered pass/fail. There is a non-fiction book by instructor Johnathan Shapiro titled Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Storytelling: Using Stories to Advocate, Influence, and Persuade that may have informed teaching on this course. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.