Anyone who has ever sat in on a trial or even watched one on TV knows that presenting a case is a lot like telling a story.

	Post-Gazette Joe Wos, left, watches students in his storytelling class act out Robin Hood using pieces of newspaper. Click photo for larger image.

There's the lawyer, who plays the role of the storyteller, and the judge and jury who make up the audience -- an audience that a lawyer has to entertain as he or she informs.

It was a lesson that 27 summer associates at the Downtown law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham and four from the Downtown firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott -- all 31 of them law school students -- learned last week as they found themselves back in class, studying not contracts or torts but the art of storytelling.

Master storyteller and cartoonist Joe Wos engaged the future attorneys in a workshop at Point Park University. The summer associates -- along with a pastor, an actor and several grade-school teachers -- spent the day honing their skills at telling a story, working an audience and altering their approach based on the reaction from the audience -- in this case other members of the class.

"You have to sell your story," said Carl Jones, 24, a Kirkpatrick & Lockhart intern who said he found the workshop beneficial. "To do that, you need to do it in an effective and interesting way."

David Herring, a law professor and outgoing dean at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, said the story format was highly effective in bringing a case to life for the jury.

Lawyers, he says, often benefit from training in the theater arts because style and presentation are necessary to make good, convincing arguments. Pitt's law school values the benefits of these skills so much that it even has theater students come and make presentations to law students, Herring said.

Learning how to get visual feedback by reading the audience also is crucial in the courtroom, said Vivian Curran, a Pitt law professor. "You can see when you're losing a judge's sympathy and you need to tailor what you're saying to that effect."

The benefits of good storytelling skills are not just good for lawyers. They extend to all professions.

"Storytelling is salesmanship," said Wos. "Whether I'm telling you of a product and why it's so great and how it can change your life, or if you're a young person looking for a job, telling your experience and why you should be hired. That is what a storyteller is able to convey."

The storytelling workshop is part of a new initiative by Point Park to encourage Downtown businesses to see the university as a resource for staff development. This summer, it is holding 25 programs, including what it calls "Lunch and Learns" for busy professionals who can spend their lunch hours learning how to master such skills as conflict resolution and handling difficult co-workers.

For the Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Eckert Seamans summer interns, the storytelling workshop served as a fun and entertaining way to learn important presentation skills that they will be able to take with them into the courtroom. "Everything we do as lawyers is telling stories," said Curran. "Learning how to tell them well is the single most important skill of American lawyering."