The Art of Storytelling for Lawyers: Science of storytelling, structure, uses in practice, and challenges

Deborah V. Pagnotta | ULUstory, PBC

When Deborah was 5, her adventurous architect mother moved them from Oakland, California, to Accra, Ghana. Five years later, her mother’s boss, President Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown by a military coup. Deborah was shipped off to a small boarding school in Europe. A year later, they moved to Los Angeles, then New Haven, then her mother sent her back to another boarding school in Europe, where she finished high school. Then, after a gap year in Detroit, she was off to Boston for college. With each move, she had to learn how to survive in a completely new culture – different languages, visuals, rules, values, even clothes, cultural references, fragrances, hairstyles. Storytelling saved her – giving her, always the stranger, the gifts of making friends, perspective shifting, and listening skills. These skills have informed all her work as an adult: as a lawyer, trainer, mediator, professor, VP/HR, and entrepreneur. Her role in each has been to helping people communicate more effectively, past barriers, to connect, persuade, teach, team build, and manage conflict. How? Using stories.

So, in 2021, she founded ULUstory, a science-based storytelling platform to help every user easily and rapidly find, build and share their true stories to create sustainable trust, empathy and connection across barriers, even with people we don’t like. How? Neuroscience tells us that true storytelling, in a very particular format, is the most powerful communication tool by which humans can forge community. 47,000 years ago, cavepeople started telling stories to overcome hostility and create collaborative societies. ULUstory marries science, tech, and creativity to give everybody that power.

I. Science of Storytelling | 2:00pm – 2:30pm

II. Structure | 2:30pm – 3:00pm

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

III. Uses in Practice | 3:10pm – 3:40pm

IV. Challenges for Lawyers | 3:40pm – 4:10pm