Abstract
This article introduces the reader to the idea of "Applied Legal Storytelling," and differentiates it from law and literature. The goal of applied legal storytelling, through conferences and the resulting lawyering (clinic, legal writing, and skills) scholarship, is to create a rich and accessible dialogue about the how, when and why of stories and storytelling in legal practice. The conferences support professors create a foundation for future lawyers by teaching story and storytelling as part of a primary pedagogy. The scholarship promotes legal practice as well as legal education. Behind the idea is the simple truth that stories are essential ingredients in human interaction and a primary form of communication. An audience responds to stories in one of three ways: response-shaping, response-reinforcing, or response-changing. Thus, stories are cognitive instruments as well as a means of argumentation in and of themselves.