Abstract
I. Introduction "Go that way, very fast, and if something gets in your way, turn." 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. This gap is glaring, especially since most lawyers reflexively acknowledge that it is important to tell a story to write a good facts section, and that the facts section of a brief plays an extremely important role in persuading judges. The only books containing any instruction on legal storytelling are trial practice books, which gear lawyers up for juries. As we will show, however, the story concept is such a powerful tool of persuasion that lawyers should not wait until the eve of trial to begin crafting the story of their case. So, why does no one teach lawyers how to tell stories? Because few people actually know how to tell a story. Yet a story is essential to a good facts section. This implies that few lawyers know how to write good facts sections. This ignorance is not the fault of legal writing teachers, and this article is in no way ...