Your teaching methods are unorthodox. I do not expect you to receive that as a shocking or challenging contention. Why do you teach the way you do? Every student leaves your class with a sense of having experienced something unique; to be blunt, every student would report the eccentricity of the professor as his or her most memorable impression of the Evidence class. What does this do for us?

I think the simple answer to this question is that you are attempting to lead by example. You emphasize the importance of storytelling, of developing a story that the jury can believe and with which it can sympathize. You tell stories throughout the course: personal stories, shared stories, pieces of lore from the litigator’s tradition. You show us through your manner, your words and the trust we develop in you to believe the stories you tell us. By the end of the course we are suckers for your words; we would deliver your billion dollar verdict if you asked us to do so. I cannot speak for the other students, but that is the most valuable lesson I have taken from the course. If I can become the same trusted, brilliant, engaging storyteller to a group of people, I can win whatever I desire.

You showed us how to tell our stories by explaining the practical use of the rules of evidence. You expounded the nuts and bolts of the difficult areas of the law of evidence. We must tell our stories without the distraction of complicated objections wherever possible. We must learn to avoid opening doors to witnesses’ testimony or opposing counsels’ cross-examinations which can interrupt the flow of our stories or introduce disturbing or contradictory elements to them. These rules, which might ordinarily form the heart of an Evidence class, were taught to us as boundaries or structure to the real substance of evidence.

More importantly, you showed us how others tell their stories through your incredibly varied modes of presentation. We learned from practitioners of the art, from filmed trials or dramatizations of trials, from our research into the cases which we studied and presented as groups, and, of course, from Cousin Vinnie. It might not work for every student; some might demand that there be some unifying theory which makes sense of every mode of storytelling. To me, though, each of the many ways of presenting stories were weapons in the arsenal or, to use a less warlike metaphor, paints on the palette. I will not know how effective your plan has been until I take my training into the field, but at this point I cannot think of a better way to show young lawyers how to practice their craft.

You always looked so pleased with yourself and you conveyed your stories with such obvious pleasure that you also taught us, and I do not know whether you intended this or not, that there can be real joy in the life of a lawyer. This lesson is too often neglected in the study of law; one usually extracts the impression that lawyering is inherently joyless. You are so clearly having fun in all of the various projects upon which you are working that I look forward to a field of endless engaging opportunities instead of one of soul-numbing drudgery.

You tried to teach us of the practical realities of courtroom strategy. We learned how to get our stories in front of the jury even when the evidence with which we wished to tell the story was not admissible. We learned not to ask open-ended questions of witnesses, or, indeed any question to which we do not know the answer in advance. We learned to be mindful of the power struggles from which the Rules developed. You tried to explain the delicate matter of how far one can push a judge when one is trying to introduce or exclude evidence. You set yourself a difficult task and I hope, for my sake, that you achieved your goals.

In summary, I believe you wanted to teach us the craft of the storyteller, a deeply personal and individual craft, in the only way you thought appropriate – from your own point of view. That is the source of the perceived eccentricity and unorthodoxy. You do not attempt to display the material in a dry, neutral manner because what you are trying to teach is not susceptible to being taught that way. Your classes are engaging, surprising, enigmatic and, ultimately, greatly rewarding.

Student Number: 40489525