Course · Interpersonal Skills
Visual Storytelling for Lawyers
Choose the picture that makes one point to one audience, draw it honestly, put numbers in a form people understand and build slides that carry an argument.
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Lawyers are trained in words, and for good reason. Yet much of what a lawyer must communicate is hard to take in as words alone: a timeline of eighteen events, the structure of a corporate group, the trend in a client’s complaints, the spread of settlements in a type of dispute, the steps of a regulatory process. A well-made picture lets the reader understand faster, remember longer and check the argument more easily. The same power is a danger. A picture feels objective, so a misleading one persuades more strongly than a misleading sentence, and a clumsy one can bury the point in decoration. This course teaches visual storytelling for lawyers in seven modules and a capstone, without requiring any design skill: why visuals matter and how to plan one from its message and audience; how to choose the right chart for the question; how to draw charts that do not mislead, and spot those that do; how to put numbers in forms that people can understand, with natural frequencies and honest framing; how to draw timelines, flow charts and structure diagrams that make a point; how to build slides and one-page summaries around claims and plain words; and how to use exhibits, AI tools and generated images with the care that professional duties require. It is written in jurisdiction-neutral terms with invented examples, and tells you where the rules on exhibits differ.
The Curriculum
Why visuals matter in legal work: one message, one audience, one picture→
What pictures do for an argument, audiences and their needs, one message per visual, planning from purpose, the risks of misleading and oversimplifying, and accessibility. Practice: Picture or Prose, Know the Audience and Spot the Muddle.
Choosing the right chart: from the question to the form→
Eight questions a chart can answer, bars, lines, tables, histograms and scatter plots, why pies are rarely best, sorting, direct labels, colour with a purpose and cutting clutter. Practice: Match the Question, Table or Chart and the Chart Chooser tool.
Drawing honest charts: baselines, denominators, periods and what is left out→
Zero baselines, broken and dual axes, the choice of period, counts versus rates, uncertainty, changed definitions, 3D effects, colour, sources, and spotting misleading charts in evidence. Practice: Fix the Chart, Misleading or Merely Weak and the Chart Honesty Check tool.
Numbers people can understand: frequencies, relative and absolute change and honest framing→
Natural frequencies, relative versus absolute change, percent versus percentage points, small bases, rounding, comparisons, ranges and framing. Practice: Say It Plainly, Relative or Absolute and the Number Framer tool.
Timelines, diagrams and structure: showing sequence, process and relationships→
Timelines that argue, scale and gaps, flow charts and decision trees, ownership and relationship charts, one message per diagram, sources and checking. Practice: Pick the Events, Flow or Structure and Check the Diagram.
Slides and one-page summaries: building an argument people can follow→
Headlines as claims, one idea per slide, text density, plain words and active voice, numbers on slides, handouts, structure, executive summaries and decision pages, legibility and accessibility. Practice: Rewrite the Slide, Slide or Handout and the Slide Checker tool.
Exhibits, ethics and AI-made visuals: using pictures responsibly→
Evidence versus demonstrative aids, rules that vary, accuracy and candour, reproducibility, confidentiality, AI-drafted charts and generated images, and a final checklist. Practice: Evidence or Aid, Using AI Safely and the Final Check.
Capstone: Capstone: Calder Valley Water→
A complaints spike, a billing change that altered the counting, an analyst’s misleading draft and a board that must decide this week. Choose the charts, check them, frame the numbers, fix the slides and write the decision page.
What It Covers
“You will be able to choose the right picture for a point, draw it so that it does not mislead and present it in a form that your audience can use.”
- Seven modules and a capstone that follow a visual from idea to exhibit: message and audience, chart choice, honest drawing, numbers people understand, timelines and diagrams, slides and summaries, and exhibits, ethics and AI.
- Four working tools with invented data: a Chart Chooser that recommends a form from the question, the number of categories and the audience, a Chart Honesty Check that lists what could mislead the reader in a chart that you describe, a Number Framer that shows one change as relative, absolute and natural-frequency statements, and a Slide Checker that reads the wording and length of your slides.
- Treats honesty as a skill: baselines, denominators, periods, changed definitions, small numbers and uncertainty, and how to challenge a misleading chart in someone else’s evidence.
- Honest about limits throughout: rules on exhibits differ by court, AI tools can draw wrong charts that look right, generated images are not evidence and a picture never replaces the argument.
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Or give this as a giftOther Scrolls in This Chamber
Across the Table$15 →Interests, walk-away numbers, offers, trades, pressure tactics and professional limits, with practice rooms and calculators.
Cooling the Room$15 →How conflict escalates, mapping a dispute, de-escalation, hard conversations, choosing a process, mediation, power, culture and ethics, with practice mediations.
The Client Conversation$15 →Trust, the first meeting, fees and scope, updates in plain words, advice and decisions, bad news, boundaries and ethics, with practice meetings.Part of a program
Step 9 of 12 in the Law and Data Practitioner Program
Learn to put honest numbers on legal work: risk, cases, contracts, money, negotiations, deals and regulation, and to show them so that people act. Each course is sold on its own; the whole program is $69 once and unlocks every course in it.
See the whole programModule 1 is free to try. Sign in, pass each module quiz and the course average, and your Certificate of Completion is emailed to you automatically. This course teaches method and technique with invented people and figures; it is general education, not legal advice, and professional rules differ from country to country.
Common questions
- Do I need design skills or special software?
- No. The course is about choices, not drawing skill: what to show, how to scale it, what to leave out and what to say. The examples can be made in any spreadsheet or presentation program.
- Is it only for litigators?
- No. It suits anyone who must explain something to a client, a board, a regulator, a court or colleagues: transactional lawyers, in-house counsel, compliance and operations staff, students and legal technologists.
- Do the tools look at my real charts?
- No. They work from the features you describe or the text you paste, using simple rules, with invented data. They show the method; a real chart still needs to be looked at by someone who knows the audience and the evidence. They run in your browser without sending anything anywhere.
- Does it cover the rules on evidence and exhibits?
- It explains the principles, such as the difference between evidence and a demonstrative aid, the duty not to mislead and the need for reproducibility, and says that the rules on exhibits, notice and disclosure differ by court and country, so that you must check them where you practise.
- Does it cover AI tools?
- Yes. It covers using AI to draft charts and summaries, which is convenient and risky: check the terms and confidentiality first, verify every value, scale and period, and treat generated images as illustrations and not evidence.
- How do I get the Certificate of Completion?
- Sign in, pass each module quiz and keep a course average of at least 75. The certificate is then issued and emailed to you automatically.
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