Narrative-Driven Education for Lawyers, Experts, Professionals, and Thought Leaders
Delivering high-impact, ethics-centered seminars that help professionals stop sounding generic and start leading with clarity, courage, and authority.
Personally delivered by Carl Taylor, seasoned litigator and author turned Founder of Books for Experts.
Seminars for Lawyers and Judges
Workshops That Humanize Legal Writing, Inspire Empathy, and Build Lasting Authority - from CLE-Approved Storytelling Sessions to Poetry Seminars for the Bench
In an age of AI churn, burnout, and performative professionalism, your writing should still move people. Our seminars are built to help legal professionals write with authority, humanity, and emotional resonance. Whether you’re a new judge or a seasoned trial attorney, we believe narrative writing is a key tool of justice, one that too often lost beneath jargon and fear.
Live Seminars and Workshops (CLE-Eligible)
Storycraft to Humanize Lawyers
Lawyers are trained to argue, to analyze, to win. But few are trained to feel, reflect, or listen – especially to themselves. Our seminars flip the script. By stepping into narrative craft – poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction – legal professionals rediscover the human voice buried beneath the boilerplate. And in doing so, they reclaim their authority not just as experts…but as humans.
Our Signature Seminars
Judge Not, Lest Thy Poem Be Judged
A poetry-based empathy seminar for judges. Participants write and share short poems and prose prompts in a safe, supportive space - mirroring some of the discomfort, exposure, and powerlessness many litigants feel in their courtrooms. Through vulnerability, we unlock wisdom. Through metaphor, we train compassion. "If you want justice, start with a judge who remembers how it feels to speak while afraid."
Writing the Lawyer's Journey
A guided narrative workshop that takes lawyers through personal storytelling prompts covering purpose, burnout, turning points, and moral courage. Designed to foster community, release psychological pressure, and reignite the meaning behind the work. Includes optional live readings and group feedback similar to how MFA writing workshops are run. "A brief may win a case. A story may save a career."
Fiction for the Fearless: Creative Writing for Lawyers
Want to write the novel you've been hiding from your law firm? This intimate, multi-session seminar teachers lawyers the fundamental of fiction and poetry, then pushes them to create and share original work. Includes generative prompts, live critique circles, and optional publication in our annual Legal Imaginings chapbook.
"Not every lawyer has a book inside them. But the ones who do need someone to let it out."
Storycraft to Humanize Lawyers
Lawyers are trained to think like...lawyers. But what happens when that way of thinking mutes our humanity. This unique CLE draws from fiction, creative nonfiction, and memoir writing to teach lawyers how to infuse legal writing and communication with narrative clarity, empathy and emotional resonance. Led by our founder, a practicing attorney turned publisher, consultant, and writer for lawyers, the course explores how storytelling techniques from the world of literature can create stronger client relationships, clearer advocacy, and more meaningful careers. "You have always been good at telling your clients' stories, now it's time to learn how to tell your own."
Bring a Seminar to Your Court, Bar Association, or Law School
We seek to partner with bar associations, judicial training institutes, and law firms nationwide and even internationally. Whether you’re looking to host a one-time CLE, a full-day workshop, or an ongoing creative writing circle, we’ll tailor the experience to fit your community’s needs.
These Aren't Just Seminars. They're Trojan Horses.
Beneath the craft and conversation lies a deeper mission: To humanize lawyers. To build empathy. To fight sludge legal marketing. Books for Experts was founded to restore meaning to professional identity. These seminars are how that mission walks into the room.
Want to see the toughest judge cry? Ask them to read their poem aloud. Want to keep a lawyer from burning out? Let them write what they were never allowed to say.