Words, Numbers and Pictures: Why Attorneys Need All Three

This post is written by Michael Kelleher, Esq.

Before I recently joined as a litigation consultant here at Cogent Legal, “Words” was my nickname at a previous job. Ironic, isn’t it, that “Words” is now working at a legal graphics provider?

I earned the nickname because I often dealt with long and complicated patents and contracts that caused many eyes to glaze over. I was general counsel at DS-IQ, a start-up company providing advertising and marketing software—fun work with a really talented team in an entrepreneurial, fast-moving environment. I wasn’t the only team member with a nickname; I worked with “Pictures” (our CEO) and “Numbers” (our VP of Finance).

“Pictures” lives and breathes PowerPoint because a big part of his job is presenting to customers and other groups. He knows how to get and hold attention in a meeting with images, and he would frequently substitute words in a slide with a diagram or photograph. “Numbers” is a wizard with Excel—in every situation, “Numbers” has models and scenarios whizzing around in the cells of spreadsheets.

“Pictures,” “Numbers” and I (“Words”) often collaborated on presentations, each preparing a set of draft slides for the others to review. We would then look at our draft slides together and talk about the upcoming presentation, and in the process would refine the slides by thinking through our message, our audience and how the meeting would flow. Some of the questions we’d ask each other: (more…)