Hey Reader,

[No spoilers in this email.]

I faked my way through The Odyssey in college.

Which is especially embarrassing considering I was a theater major.

Greek mythology is kind of our thing.

Now, a week after opening, I've already seen it in IMAX. Twice.

Six hours. Worth every minute.

Long before most people had seen the film, director Christopher Nolan was already taking heat from academics and purists.

Their biggest complaint?

He didn’t use a strict translation.

The characters speak contemporary English, not ancient Greek. Nolan told the LA Times he wanted to use language with "emotional, not intellectual meaning."

In other words, he didn’t set out to recreate Homer's original words.
He was recreating the original experience.

He wanted people walking out of the theater feeling what ancient Greeks felt 2,700 years ago.

Not by translating The Odyssey.

By inviting people into it.

That's your job, too.

From the first question of your first deposition to the last line of your closing, your job isn't to show the jury how much you know.

It's to help them experience your client's story.

Your case is already complicated enough.

The medical records.
The timeline.
The statute.
The expert who talks like a textbook.

Your language doesn't have to be.

"Ecchymosis" becomes "bruise."

"Decelerate" becomes "hit the brakes."

"Failed to adhere to the standard of care" becomes "he skipped the step that would've caught it."

Every unfamiliar word, every unnecessary phrase, every sentence your jury has to decode puts one more step between them and your narrative.

Before you say it in a deposition or in court, ask yourself:

• Would my client say it this way?
• Would my spouse say it this way?
• Would a juror repeat it this way during deliberations?

If not, keep rewriting.

It's one of the hardest things there is: taking something dense and making it land in someone's chest on the first pass.

Every time a juror stops to decode a $100 word, they leave your story. And they don't always come back.

You don't have to change the facts.
Just your jury's understanding of them.

If you're stuck trying to make a complicated case easier to follow, send it our way.

A transcript. An opening. An expert report.

We help attorneys turn their cases into stories juries can actually follow.

→ [Schedule a free 30-minute strategy session]​

Your popcorn-for-dinner trial consultants,

PS. Twenty-some years later, I finally know what happens in The Odyssey. Turns out I didn't need to be a better student. I needed a better translator.

That's exactly what we do with cases every day. [Connect with us here]​

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