Court as Theatre - Attorneys' Learning from Starbucks' Bad Acting

"The record is empty," rang defense attorney Don Scott's voice in Rhode Island Lead Paint Public Nuisance Trial II. 

The silent tableau of the platform shoes and wig staged by defense attorney Steve Farese in the Mary Winkler murder trial represented theatre in court at its best. 

And, as William Lee Miller reports in "Lincoln's Virtues," this supposedly unsophisticated man was no slouch in sensing how to connect in court.

With so much at stake in law, it's a no-brainer that legal representatives, be they in ancient Rome, Rhode Island, Tennessee or Illinois knew, to paraphrase Experience Economy experts Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, that "the legal system is theatre & every hearing is a stage." Pine and Gilmore didn't systematize that reality until 1999 in their breakthrough book "The Experience Economy." 

But another lead paint defense attorney Mickey Pohl, representing Sherwin-Williams, had already long been on the stump evangelizing that aspiring trial lawyers better bypass those artificial exercises on the debate team. Instead, Pohl told 'em, get yourselves menial jobs. They will learn plenty about human nature.

But every so often a monster lesson gets plopped down in front of the legal community about stagecraft.  And it would be unwise to ignore it.

This whopper is coming in McDonald's march on Experience-Economy Star Starbucks.  Mickey D saw lazy staging and lackluster acting.  It moved in.  As THE ECONOMIST reports, that unique experience which had made a latte at Starbucks worth a premium price got diluted. 

For example, says THE ECONOMIST, there was "the  switch from hand-operated espresso machines to the automatic variety. This helped to speed up service but also took away the 'romance and theatre' provided by the shiny La Marzo coffee machines."  In addition, Starbucks punctured the mandatory mystique by growing too large.  In their 2007 book "Authenticity," Pine and Gilmore note that nothing kills the act like ubiquity.  Starbucks also risked its connection with the audience by continuning to  boost "ticket" prices.

From all this, attorneys as well as the rest of us in professional services who rely on casting spells can re-learn that precise attention to the detail of stagecraft, inspired acting, keeping close to the audience, and maintaining affordable pricing are sacred must-dos.  Attorney Hillary Clinton demonstrated just that in New Hampshire: Modifications to key parts of her act triggered a major upset.

It seems the lessons are really nothing new. 

Broadway stars stay stars by providing a fresh or, as Pine and Gilmore would call it, an "authentic" performance night after night, year after year.  Defaulting into formula is not permitted. My hunch is that the RI lead paint defense lawyers, after losing that trial in 2006, went on to big wins in state Supreme Courts and two Wisconsin trials because they presented fresh performances. Crudely put, the acting didn't appear tired or from a dusty script.

Secondly, flee the experts.  When Hillary did that she gave America what they felt was her.  That means getting out in messy reality, observing what seems to be going on, and custom-making the persona for that.  Jury consultants, polls, media assessments - they're becoming obstacles to connecting with what is.

Third, let the audience in. That's happening in Florida. Judges there now have to allow jurors to ask questions of defendants and witnesses. Where state laws don't permit that yet, let them in through open body language and arguments that they can understand. 

Of course the challenge in all this is creating the illusion of being real. Shakespeare was right on when he said all the world's a stage.  Even supposedly unself-conscious infants manage their world strategically.