by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
A courtroom presentation may be a far cry from a stage performance, but personal injury attorney Jennifer Kolinski Millis says her drama background has given her a unique trial style.
“There’s actually a lot of crossover,” she said. “There’s a lot of what I learned in acting and directing that I could take to trial law.”
Millis, 31, has been practicing law for seven years and recently joined Jacksonville firm Peek, Cobb & Edwards to focus on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. She spent most of her school days studying acting and directing, however. Millis attended the audition-only New World School for the Arts in Miami and New York University, where she performed in off-off-Broadway shows and earned a bachelor’s degree.
Several aspects of her theater experience have proven useful in the courtroom, Millis said.
As a director, she strategically placed people on stage for maximum visibility and dramatic impact. In trials, Millis said she sets herself and her exhibits at specific angles to ensure her audience – whether jury, judge or witness – gets the best view possible.
“When you do stage theater, there are certain triangles that you set up, certain angles you want to be seen or not seen,” she said.
Her acting skills have paid off, as well. Millis said speakers should watch themselves recorded on video to see their strengths and weaknesses.
“There’s a lot of thought that goes into a trial in terms of holding attention,” she said. “Trials can be very long and very hard on a juror.”
Millis added that even Shakespearean monologues can get tedious, so actors employ emphasis and other dramatic techniques to keep interest. She often uses careful breathing to slow her speech down.
A presenter’s “quirky, idiosyncratic gestures” can get on an audience’s nerves, Millis said. Both actors and attorneys can work on eliminating nervous cues.
Millis tended to “do the um-thing” and play with her hair when she first started acting. She said a lot of people play with jewelry or do “the seasick,” swaying back and forth without realizing it.
“Are they (those nervous habits) the end of the world? No,” said Millis. “But you’d be amazed how little things can become distractions. And you don’t want that with a jury.”
While she suggests attorneys try to “read” juries and adjust presentations to fit each audience, Millis said trials are not places to create false personalities.
“Every lawyer has their own style and presentation and it has to seem natural,” she said. “You have to come off sincere and credible, and you can’t force what you’re not.”
There are no one-size-fits-all presentation techniques, Millis said. She recalled advice an attorney gave her during a mock trial once. Millis was told to be less energetic and be more of “a very laid back, Matlock kind of lawyer.”
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m not going to wear a seersucker suit,’ ” she said. “I’m not laid back, and I’m not going to pull that off in court ... I think a juror would be insulted if you tried to come off as something you’re not.”
Millis said she occasionally misses the camaraderie of working on productions and the diverse backgrounds of people in drama.
“The hours were tough,” she added. “And ‘How much do you weigh, what do you measure?’ I don’t miss that at all.”
Millis isn’t working on any dramatic projects right now: Her two children, ages 3 years and 9 months, keep her personal schedule packed. She’ll consider directing them in children’s plays when they get older, Millis said, but she doesn’t want to be a “stage mom.”
She was always interested in trial law and sees her current work as a way to help people and “channel creativity and learning.”
“The biggest thing I wound up learning from the theater is how to tell a story,” said Millis. “Every case has a story, and it has its own ebb and flow. Some of them are shorter stories than others, but they’re all really important to the people involved in them. It’s especially gratifying to tell a story for somebody who literally can’t.”