While visiting our kid at college a few months ago, I found myself talking to the dad of one of his baseball teammates over a beer or three. He’s a civil litigator named to the top 1% of American lawyers and has won weeks-long jury cases for $150 million+.

On the surface, a big-time trial lawyer and a medium-time ad creative don’t have much in common. But as the conversation wandered to the topic of persuasion, it became clear that our jobs are eerily similar and that ad pros can learn a lot about winning the hearts and minds of an audience from trial law tactics.

Here are a few ad people can and should steal:

Themes win trials

“The first thing I do when I take a case is start thinking of my closing argument,” the lawyer said. “If I can’t come up with a compelling theme that can be delivered in one sentence, I don’t go any further.” He will test that theme cold with bartenders, Uber drivers and CEOs, and use their reactions to hone it. “Then I build on that theme every step of the way, from my opening statement to the evidence I present to every word of my closing argument.” 

In the ad world, if it’s taking you more than one sentence to describe your strategy or concept to someone with zero vested interest in liking or understanding it—such as my wife—you’re already cooked. Similarly, if you want your audience to buy your argument, develop every element of your campaign along the spine of your central theme. Tangents distract and dilute.

Be who you are

Authenticity builds or destroys credibility. As the lawyer puts it: “I can’t show up trying to be Gerry Spence in some ornate Native American shirt throwing around folksy slang. A jury would see through that in a heartbeat.” Brands pretending to be something their audience knows they’re not will nuke credibility. 

Apple doesn’t pretend to be a democratized value brand. AriZona Iced Tea costs 99 cents and doesn’t pretend to be worth a penny more.  

While being who you are, it also helps if you’re not a condescending a-hole. “Are you rude to a witness? Are you rude to the clerk? Are you rude to the judge? Jurors pick up on everything,” the litigator said. 

If Twitter/X wants to slow its hemorrhaging of users and advertisers to Threads, Elon may want to listen. (He won’t.) 

Try your opposition’s case

The attorney makes sure to identify all of his clients’ vulnerabilities early and prepares accordingly. “I dream up the best possible case I could make if I was on my opponent’s side and come loaded for bear against that.”

In advertising, persuading a tough audience starts with popping the everybody-loves-us bubble, surfacing the audience’s strongest argument against you and meeting it with empathy.

Don’t waste your first words on an introduction

You get one shot at starting your case to the jury. “Drama is so important. I never start my opening statement with ‘Hi, I’m Lawyer X, over there is my client, blah blah blah.’ I stand up, wait until the room is absolutely silent, then hit ‘em with a bombshell.” In our hyper-skippable world, there are strong, data-backed arguments for flashing a logo in the first five seconds of content. Yes, it’ll juice brand attribution metrics, but what are we giving up in return? 

“If I don’t get the jury’s attention immediately, it’s so hard to get later. I’ll go to the death over that one.”

Arm the jurors who agree with you

“Juries are almost always split going into deliberation,” the attorney said. “And if the jury’s at 7 to 5, those 5 are going to be swayed by the persuasion of the other 7. They do that with the bullets we’ve given them throughout the trial.”

Since lawyers can’t join the deliberations, arming sympathetic jurors with short, memorable soundbites is crucial. Remember Johnnie Cochran’s “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit” zinger? It worked. 

Similarly, what are you giving fans of your brand to help them evangelize on your behalf? Think meme-able brand ingredients such as Burger King’s insanely TikTok-friendly “Whopper Whopper” jingle. Think unshakeable influencer/celebrity tie-ins such as Michael Cera for CeraVe. Think stupidly infectious taglines such as Arby’s “We Have The Meats”.  

My closing argument:

Lawyers are on the hook for keeping people out of prison and companies from going broke, so they’ve gotten pretty good at persuasion. While the stakes for ad folks aren’t usually as high—at least the going to prison part—our jobs aren’t entirely dissimilar, and we’d be well served to borrow some lawyer-ly habits.

Start with a killer hook and build from there. Show up as yourself or lose credibility. Embrace the strongest arguments against you. Don’t waste your first words on formalities. Arm your evangelists. And use fart jokes.

OK, that last one’s from me.