Saturday, September 8, 2012

A Creative Approach After My Own Heart

I have taught basic and advanced English composition at the college level. Whenever I led an advanced English comp group, I always included graphic novel snippets, comic strips, even bumper stickers in the curriculum, since they are powerful and effective ways to get one's message across. In fact, I usually included a final project that instructed students to use pictures of any sort (photographs, drawings, etc) to construct an effective argument that would be easily identified and understood by fellow classmates. Of course, that always led to fun finals presentations, but I digress ...
Go here to see/read the brief in its entirety

Well, an attorney has finally swiped a page from my (I'm certain well-worn) play book and used it in a court of law. Bob Kohn, a music licensing law expert, filed an amicus curiae brief (that is, a friend of the court brief, not on behalf of either side in the dispute) in the form of a comic strip. He did so in response to the judge's order to limit his presentation to the court to five pages. Kohn then enlisted the drawing skills of one of his daughter's friends and created a pictoral argument that otherwise conformed to all of the court's requirements - in five pages (excluding the legal introductory and conclusory necessities).

Whether or not one is a music law expert, wouldn't you rather read this presentation than five pages filled only with dry legal rhetoric?

Since Kohn wasn't directly representing any party in the dispute (so the winning/losing issue is moot, although Kohn might take exception to that characterization), my only question: was the daughter's friend fairly compensated?

3 comments:

  1. I sure hope they were compensated :) Ingenious too! I can think of a few technical reports I've had to pour over the last few months that would have been more enjoyable had they been picturesque. :D

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  2. Totally Awesome!
    I think it should be a requirement that all legal documents must be done in this format!

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