I love talking to young attorneys about their cases. They are enthusiastic and often passionate about their client’s position. They know the law and have thought through its permutations as it relates to their facts. They believe in, and can readily articulate, the fairness of their client’s position. They answer my questions directly, pointedly, and persuasively. They are good oral advocates. They speak from the heart.

So why is it then, when it comes to oral argument, so many young attorneys turn into robots?

Certainly, part of it is nerves and inexperience. But a larger part, I believe, has to do with the approach that many attorneys — young and old — take when preparing for oral argument.

The typical approach is for attorneys to essentially write a new, shortened legal brief to be recited to the court either from memory or (too often) by reference to a written script. The result is predictable: monotone delivery; a tendency to restate arguments already clearly made in prior briefs; a seeming inability to respond to new issues raised by the opposing party; and, far worse, a tendency to evade questions posed by the court so as to return more quickly to the prepared script.

That is not oral advocacy. That is a “book on tape.” Oral argument is your opportunity to communicate to a judge in ways not possible through written briefs alone. Written briefs are stagnant; oral advocacy is dynamic. Briefs are incapable of listening to a judge’s questions or of picking up on the many nuanced signals that a judge may give off. And, through oral argument, you are able to communicate, in a more humanistic way, your genuine belief in the rightness of your position.

Certainly, you must prepare a written outline and your arguments must also fit within the applicable legal framework. But when you speak, do not speak from your notes. Speak from your heart. Oral argument is your time to tell a judge, face-to-face, why your client is right, why it matters, while at the same time showing that you believe in the correctness and fairness of your own arguments. Do not make arguments you do not believe in yourself. Listen and respond to questions. And, speak with the same passion and conviction that you show when discussing the same case with a colleague or friend. You can do it. I’ve seen you do it.