Who should attend: All lawyers who want to increase their effectiveness, from those newly called who want to improve their confidence and self-possession, to seasoned practitioners who want to enhance their skill set.
Learning level: All levels
This course is Limited Enrolment!
Dramatically improve your performance as a lawyer using the skills and techniques of an actor
Many think of acting as either purely intuitive or a kind of false histrionics. In fact, actors carefully work a series of techniques that, when filtered through their body, persuade an audience to believe in a story. In advocacy, a lawyer does the same thing, and yet most legal training ends with legal rules and procedures. How then do lawyers translate their ideas, research, and facts into a live three-dimensional event?—by borrowing age-old verbal and non-verbal communication skills from the actor.
Using techniques drawn from the craft of the professional actor, this course will teach lawyers how to be more natural, believable, assertive, and self-possessed. You will learn simple, concrete techniques that will energize your performance at trial, in mediation, in arbitration, and in any legal argument. These skills will enable you to take your case beyond the traditional approach to trial advocacy and give you a critical persuasive edge. You will learn by doing, as each participant is given ample opportunity to present and receive one-on-one feedback in a supportive and transformative environment. By the end of the session you will possess the skills to make you a better lawyer – a lawyer who will win more arguments by exuding strength and confidence, and making powerful connections with clients, jurors, and judges!
Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 6 hours (If you attend the optional session, you will receive a minimum of 1 hour of professional responsibility and ethics, client care and relations, and/or practice management.)
Registration includes lunch. There are no course materials for this course.
Course Director and Lead Instructor
Katrina Dunn — Course Director, Touchstone Training and Artistic Director, Touchstone Theatre, Vancouver
About the Course Director and Lead Instructor
Katrina Dunn is an award-winning professional director, respected producer, and inspiring teacher who has brought her considerable skill set to creation of the principles and techniques of Touchstone Training. For over a decade she has been Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre, one of Vancouver’s most cherished cultural organizations, and has worked with Vancouver lawyers for almost as long on Touchstone’s annual Lawyer Show. She has taught theatre at the UBC and Touchstone Training workshops through the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia and at numerous legal conferences and events.
CLEBC Program Coordinator
Kelly Skinner
kskinner@cle.bc.ca