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Visual Legal Training:

 

Connecticut Public Television documentary coverage of "Visual Persuasion in the Law" [including interviews with students and faculty]

____________________________________________________________________

About the course:

Visual Persuasion in the Law

©Richard K. Sherwin           Email: rsherwin@nyls.edu

              &

©Christina Spiesel         Email: christina.spiesel@yale.edu  

                  &   

©Neal Feigenson                    Email:  neal.feigenson@quinnipiac.edu

 

 

Introduction and Syllabus

 

Law is a part of the larger culture, and our culture is increasingly dominated by mass mediated images – in movies, television, CD-ROM, the Internet, and elsewhere.  Images, and not words alone, are crucial to persuasion in politics, advertising, and other domains.  Successful lawyers must also be able to understand and deploy visual language in addition to more traditional means of legal analysis and communication.  In this course we will learn how to develop a theory of the case – a story that persuades culturally as well as legally, emotionally as well as rationally.  We will also learn how to expand and strategically choose from the toolkit of persuasive techniques available at each stage of a particular legal controversy.  We will construct both verbal (textual and oral) and visual arguments about issues raised in actual litigation.  The major projects include creating a visual display for use as demonstrative evidence at a hearing or trial and, as a final assignment, a video argument for use at a hearing or in a closing statement at trial.

 

This course is designed to work on many levels simultaneously.  First, we will explore how medium and message continuously interact and affect each other in legal communication and advocacy.  Second, we will examine those interactions using sources drawn from many disciplines (as the diverse reading materials amply reveal).  Third, we will observe the constant interplay of the course subject matter and how we teach and learn it:  for instance, what we learn about verbal rhetoric and visual intelligence should help us both to engage in effective legal advocacy and to reflect on ideas about lawyering and legal education implicit in such advocacy.  That’s a lot to keep in mind, but we are confident that the practical task of creating persuasive verbal and visual arguments in actual cases (the main course projects) will anchor our wide-ranging inquiries and discussions.         

 

We expect students to share their work and their insights with each other as well as with us.  You will complete the first major project (a memorandum of law together with a still visual display for use as demonstrative evidence) individually and the second project (a video for visual advocacy) in small groups.

 

 

 

Syllabus (redacted) {readings omitted}

[midterm & final projects change annually]

 

 

[class 1] (8-23)           Introduction to visual persuasion in the law

 

     (examples of legal visual rhetoric will be shown and discussed)

 

Assignment: Classical rhetoric

            (1) Gorgias, Encomium of Helen        

(2) Plato, Gorgias (excerpts)

            (3) Aristotle, Rhetoric (excerpts)

 

 

[class 2] (8/25)            Discussion of classical rhetoric

 

(elements and practices of ancient Greek rhetorical tradition will be discussed; first project will be discussed; reading assignments and deadlines will be discussed)

 

Assignment: Law and facts re: first project

                     [“Can an Internet Service Provider be Sued for Violating Plaintiff’s

                        Right of Publicity?”]

(discuss 8/30);  [memo of law, visual display due: 9/27]

  

     

[class 3] (8/30)      Law & Facts (Project One); Theory of the Case

 

  (class discussion: law and facts re: first project: “the right of  

   publicity and ISP immunity;” theory of the case)

 

Assignment: Readings on the right of publicity, Internet culture, and the policy of immunizing Internet Service Providers (‘ISPs’) (discuss 9/1, 9/6)

 

 

[class 4] (9/1)        Publicity Rights, Images, & ISP Immunity

(class discussion)

 

 Assignment: Visual Intelligence [first readings]

                          (discuss 9/6, 9/8)

                                        

 

  [class 5] (9/6)             The Right of Publicity & ISP Immunity;

                                    Visual Intelligence (discussion continued)

 

        Assignment: Documentary (discuss 9/13, 9/15)

 

  

  [class 6] (9/8)            Visual Intelligence (discussion cont’d)

  (class discussion)

 

Assignment: Evidence assignment (discuss 9/15)

 

              [class 7] (9/13)      Persuasion and judgment; documentary

                                                   (class discussion; watch video)

 

                        Assignment: Visual Intelligence [second readings] (discuss 9/20)

  

 [class 8] (9/15)            “Evidence”; Documentary

 (class discussion)

 

 [class 9] (9/20)            Visual Intelligence

  (class discussion)

 

                         Assignment: Law on demonstrative evidence

 

            

[class 10] (9/22)          Workshop on First Project (The Right of Publicity & ISP Immunity)

 (workshop)

 

 

[class 11] (9/27)          Display and Discuss First Project

  (in-class presentations)

    

            Assignment: Law and facts (second project)

                        (discuss 10/6, 10/11)

 

                        Law and Facts re: second project (Identity Theft &

                        Social Security Fraud)

                                                   (due: 12/1)

  

 

[class 12] (9/29)          Narrative and Law

             (class discussion)

                       

 

                                 [class 13] (10/6)          Law and facts re: second project [Identity Theft &

                                   (class discussion)        Social Security Fraud]

 

 

            [Video Production Training workshop: (tba)]

           

            [Video Editing Tutorials: (meetings tba on mutually convenient 

              days/times between 10/12 & 10/21)] (these are two-hour long

              individualized tutorial sessions on video editing in the NYLS

              Digital Media Lab)

 

 

            [class 14] (10/11)        Law and facts re: second project [cont’d];

            (class discussion)         

          

 

A.     Assignment: Ad Deconstruction

                        (discuss 10/18)

 

B.     Assignment: Visual intelligence [third readings]

                        (discuss 10/18)

 

                        

          [class 15] (10/18) Ad Deconstruction; Visual Intelligence          

           (class discussion)

 

                                                                        

          [class 16] (10/20) Guest Lecture on Identity Theft & Social Security

                       Fraud

 

           

Assignment: Media reality judgments (discuss 10/25)

                                                                                                                                                                

 

[class 17] (10/25)        Media Reality Judgments; Examples of Visual Closing Arguments

 (class discussion)

         

 

[class 18] (10/27)       Plan Video Project

 (meet in small groups)

 

           Assignment: Advertising (discuss 11/3)

 

                                                                                                                                            

[class 19] (11/1)     Second Project (video argument)

(class discussion)

         

 

[class 20] (11/3)   Discuss Advertising

(class discussion)

 

 

[class 21] (11/8)   Guest Lecture (legal animations)

 (guest lecturer)

 

                       Assignment: Digital Mind (discuss 11/10)

 

                        Digital Mind

             

 

[class 22] (11/10)             Digital Mind

   (class discussion)

 

 

          [class 23] (11/15)               Second Project

   (class discussion)

 

          [class 24] (11/17)               Second Project

   (class discussion)

          

            [class 25] (11/22)           Second Project

 

 

            [class 26] (11/29)              Display and Discuss Second Project

           (in-class presentations)

 

          Assignment: Litigation PR and the ethics of visual persuasion

                                (discuss 12/6)

                      Litigation PR and the ethics of visual persuasion

  

          [class 27] (12/1)                Display and Discuss Second Project

                                          (in-class presentations)

          [class 28] (12/6)                Ethics of Visual Persuasion; Litigation Public Relations

            (class discussion)

 

  

 

-end-