Improv training for lawyers ⚖️

Put improv to work on your firm’soral advocacy

You already think on your feet for a living. This is two hours of deliberate practice at the part of lawyering no one taught you in law school: staying loose when the question you prepared for isn’t the question you get.

Litigation Transactional In-house Associate development Partner retreats

Book a workshop See how it works Custom-built for firms of 4 to 50+ attorneys. No role-play of your worst deposition. Promise.

A team laughing together mid-exercise during an improv workshop

Workshop participants practicing ‘Yes, And’ in pairs

A participant speaking with confidence in front of the group

Why improv works for lawyers

Every skill a great improviser has is a skill great lawyers bill for.

Improvisers train the exact muscles litigators and dealmakers rely on — listening closely, adapting instantly, and staying persuasive when a plan falls apart. The difference is that improvisers practice those skills on purpose, and most lawyers only ever practice them live, in front of a judge or a client.

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Thinking on your feet

The judge interrupts with a question you didn’t brief. The witness says something nobody expected. Improvisers get genuinely comfortable in that moment instead of freezing.

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Listening that changes outcomes

The best deposition follow-up comes from hearing what was actually said — not from the outline. Improv trains you to listen to respond, not to wait your turn.

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Presence and persuasion

Command a courtroom, a conference room, or a pitch. Same underlying skill: showing up with conviction and making people want to follow you.

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Client development

Rainmaking is mostly conversation. “Yes, And” turns stiff networking into real dialogue — especially for attorneys who dread the business-development half of the job.

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Reading the room

Judge, jury, opposing counsel, general counsel. Improvisers learn to pick up the signal in the room and adjust in real time rather than plowing through the script.

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Associate development

Junior attorneys find their voice in a low-stakes room instead of on a live call with a client — and senior partners learn to make the whole team look sharper.

The workshop

Low pressure. High reward. No trust falls.

Every session is built around your firm’s actual goals — starting from the classic improv tenet of “Yes, And” and moving into exercises chosen for the way your attorneys really work.

We talk about your firm

Associates who need to project confidence? Partners who want a stronger bench of rainmakers? A practice group that needs to actually collaborate? We define it together.

We build your session

No off-the-shelf agenda. We design exercises around your goals — and calibrate them to a room of attorneys, who are, in our experience, a famously tough crowd.

We play — with purpose

Your team laughs a lot, and leaves with skills they’ll use in the next deposition, pitch, or partner meeting. Not someday. The next morning.

4–50+

Attorneys per workshop — from practice groups to firm-wide retreats

Presenters — one career improviser, one lawyer who is also an improviser

Participants ever forced to perform, be “funny,” or pretend to be a tree

No‑Hokey
Guarantee

Lawyers are the most skeptical room we walk into. Good.

If your attorneys have sat through cringey team-building before, we get it — and skepticism is the correct starting position. Our sessions are built so everyone participates at a level that feels good to them. The goal is real skills and real laughs, never embarrassment. Nobody performs. Nobody is put on the spot to be funny.

Your presenters

One career improviser. One lawyer who is also an improviser.

That pairing is the point: your session isn’t led by a comedian guessing at what your day looks like, and it isn’t led by a consultant guessing at comedy.

Lex Friedman

Executive · Improviser · Instructor

Lex started studying improv at nine years old, trained at the famed Groundlings school in Los Angeles, and has spent the past several years performing with ComedySportz Jersey Shore.

The other half of his resume is the business half: Chief Revenue Officer at ART19 (acquired by Amazon), cofounder and CRO at Midroll (acquired by E.W. Scripps), and a media executive who has built and led high-performing teams. He runs Lex Friedman Consulting, which helps companies grow revenue, offers sales and executive coaching, and takes on strategic advisory work.

Lex also performs regularly at theaters throughout New Jersey. Recent roles include Steve in Jagged Little Pill and George in Same Time, Next Year.

Susan Kleiner

Attorney · Improviser · Instructor

Susan has been a practicing attorney since 1995 and was a partner at the law firm OGC Solutions. She has been voted one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in New Jersey for several years, and is a “Super Lawyer.”

She has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Girl Scouts, Playworks NY/NJ, the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association, and The Wilson House of East Dorset.

Susan found her love of improv as a teenager, watching Chicago City Limits in New York City. She performs regularly with ComedySportz in New Jersey and teaches improv workshops in Metuchen — so when she tells a room of attorneys that these skills hold up under the pressures of legal practice, she is speaking from both chairs.

Let’s talk

Ready to put improv to work at your firm?

Tell us a little about your attorneys, and we’ll customize the right session for them. I aim to respond within one business day.

Prefer email? Reach me directly at consulting@lexfriedman.com.

Once we’re connected, I’m happy to text or hop on a phone or video call — whatever’s easiest for you.

Not a law firm? The general workshop page is over here.