Chris Carlson might be an eight-time Law & Politics cover model, but he’s not just a pretty face. He’s using his skills as an immigration lawyer and actor to transform continuing legal education classes from mind-numbing to mind-expanding.
Carlson, who worked as an actor before going to law school, sees similarities between the two professions—“to be professional communicators,” he says.
So when he noticed that attorneys are given little to no training on how to construct and communicate stories in the courtroom, Carlson and his company, NarrativePros, wrote and produced a series of CLE courses on how to relate to a jury as effectively as an actor relates to an audience. “It’s about bridging the gap between theater, law and business,” he says. “It’s an attempt to bring professional communicators together and overcome the bias that art does not have a serious or practical aspect.”
In June, at Twin Cities theaters such as the Guthrie and Mixed Blood, Carlson paired transcripts from trials and affidavits with scenes from plays to create such classes as “Love, Law and Litigation,” “Speak to Win,” “Where You Comin’ From” and “Hollywood Lens on Lawyering.”
“Because CLEs are a requirement, they tend to be talking heads—just people talking and relaying information,” Carlson says. “We try to up the ante, and engage our audiences with dynamic speakers and good presentation.”
And because the courses are based on theatrical ideas, Carlson’s CLEs further the goals not only of Minnesota attorneys but also of the arts. By having theaters involved with CLEs, “we are bringing theater into the lives of people who are not normally exposed to it, or maybe at all,” he says.
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