“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts …”
Jaques (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII, William Shakespeare)
Everyone agrees that good advocacy is a performance. It logically follows that some of the skills and training of actors can be useful to advocates.
In his article Advocacy: Performance of the Law, James E. Smith pulls together and compares these two disciplines. His conclusions may prove useful to advocates still developing their styles, and provide food for thought for more experienced practitioners.