LawyersUSA

Lawyers are taught to be zealous advocates skilled in the crafts of rebuttal and negation. Actors performing improv comedy, on the other hand, learn to interact cooperatively and make each other look as good as possible by building upon each other's statements and actions.

But lawyers who have been trained in improv insist that it produces counterintuitive benefits for any attorney willing to give it a shot.

"It probably seems foreign in a litigation context," said Thomas F. Hankinson, a former improv actor who is now an associate at the Chicago office of Sidley Austin. "But it does make sense."

"There's the obvious stuff: thinking on your feet and not getting thrown for a loop when things don't go as you expect," he said. "But there are also good intellectual connections between what you do in an improv show and what you do in a courtroom."

Joey Novick, an attorney with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, doubles as a standup comic and improv actor and believes that litigators and transactional attorneys alike can improve their skills through improv comedy training. To that end, he has created a workshop "road show" he's calling Improv for Lawyers and he's presented it several times in the last few years at law schools and bar gatherings.

Novick trained with Del Close, a director at Chicago's renowned Second City improv theater who developed such comedy stars as Bill Murray, John Belushi and Mike Myers. Novick made his living in comedy for years and then attended night school at Seton Hall University School of Law, getting his J.D. at age 50.

Along the way, Novick conducted occasional improv workshops and noticed that they were populated by an unusually high number of lawyers who were apparently drawn to improv to develop their abilities to perform in front of an audience. One night he was talking with a lawyer friend who had done some improv and the conversation turned to the similarities between law and improv.

"We talked about how similar the skills are—the thinking in the moment, being able to think well on your feet, being able to notice patterns in the law and in the scenes, being able to think outside the box."

Novick said that's when his workshop idea was born. Now that he's given a few, he has a basis for assessing lawyer improv participants from non-lawyers and he gives attorneys high marks.

"I think lawyers tend to think a little more logically, which works for improv; they tend to be more rules-oriented, which is good. Some lawyers tend to be very competitive, but that depends on whether they're litigators or transactional lawyers. I think transactional lawyers sometimes have to be nudged more.

"But the one overriding feature I've found in working with attorneys is that they're willing to play in the moment and bring information from their lives into the scenes, which is good," Novick said.

Improv in the courtroom

Still, many lawyers are reticent about improv and its utility in their professional lives.

"It's something that most attorneys don't want anything to do with because they think it means giving up control," said Kasey Christie, a former improv actor who is now a partner at Lee & Hayes in Spokane, Wash.

But Christie and other improv-seasoned lawyers say that that assessment is based on a misconception. The notion that group-cooperation skills are irrelevant to adversarial law is flawed, they say.

Northwestern University School of Law professor Steven Lubet, who teaches trial advocacy and writes humor on the side, contends that effective rebuttal is really a form of good improvisation.

"Rebuttal is a form of building," said Lubet. "It's most effective when it entirely consumes the other side's position and then elaborates or builds on it. If you simply say, 'No, no, no' at trial, it's not very effective. If you say, 'Here's how you really ought to think about what opposing counsel is saying,' you can be much more persuasive."

Hankinson was a student of Lubet's when the two co-wrote a 2006 research paper titled "Truth in Humor: How Improvisational Comedy Can Help Lawyers Get Some Chops."

"When … improvisers perform a scene and when trial lawyers present evidence, they have the same objective: to make the people watching say to themselves, 'That so true,'" the attorneys concluded in the article. "In improvisation, the side effects of that reaction will be laughter and cheers. In trials, when all goes well, the effect will be a favorable verdict."

In improv, Hankinson told Lawyers USA, the goal is to achieve a shared consciousness called "the group mind."

"That's where everyone is experiencing the same universe that the performers are creating," he said. "That's the mindset I think you're trying to draw the audience—and the jury—into."

To Novick, trials are similar to games—meaning that lawyers participating in them must respond to opponents' moves. He said improv training sharpens that ability.

He recalled watching a video of an oral argument at the New Jersey Supreme Court when a justice asked a question that obviously threw a lawyer off his guard. He contended that a seasoned improv performer would never have allowed that to happen.

"The justice is making a move," Novick said. "He's moving his bishop and you have to respond to it; you have to play the chess piece where it is."

Improv and transactional law

Christie, who is an intellectual property lawyer, finds his improv background useful in the give and take involving patent applications.

Part of his job involves "arguing with patent examiners" and he said that his improv training helps in "having to think on my feet and respond."

But he also believes that improv has helped his overall, day-to-day work life. Every day, Christie said, he works with groups of people and he said the process of interaction is easier for him because of his improv training.

"Improv has taught me to have no fear," he said. "I'm not afraid of public speaking because I'm not afraid to make a mistake."

Christie said he's not trying to promote improv per se within the firm; but he is trying push its precepts of cooperation firm-wide.

"In improv, we teach people about the need to let go of your need to be in control and learn your role. Even if you really are the star, you need people to support you."

Another improv-trained lawyer, R. Joseph Leibovich, a partner at Shuttleworth Williams in Memphis, agreed.

"Improv is useful for lawyers because one of the skills it teaches is active listening," said Leibovich, who still performs improv as well as stand-up comedy. "That's a skill that anyone can use."

Leibovich chairs his firm's employment practice group and has found that his improv skills are beneficial when he conducts workplace training sessions on sexual-harassment policies and positive employee relations with clients.

"It's not a comedy club situation," he said, "but if you apply a few touches of improv training, it helps to make the presentation more entertaining and engaging."

Leibovich sees another added benefit to lawyers from improv training.

"The legal system is moving more and more to a mediation approach—as opposed to a trial approach. The skills taught by improv are directly applicable."

Improv-trained lawyers seem to agree on the various advantages of learning to think on one's feet in a collaborative group setting. But in the end, Novick said, there's one benefit that seldom gets discussed.

"When you're getting up and acting out, it puts you in a better frame of mind," he said. "It's fun."

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: dick.dahl@lawyersusaonline.com