Drake, Gillian

Gillian Drake is the founder and director of On Trial Associates, Inc., and Acting for Lawyers™. She is an accomplished theater director who, for over 25 years, has worked with lawyers and witnesses to elicit persuasive performances from even the most unwilling speakers. Ms. Drake also lectures on trial strategy, witness preparation, communicating with juries, and Acting for Lawyers™ training.

Gillian Drake is a nationally recognized expert on the courtroom behavior of witnesses, lawyers, and juries. She has consulted on hundreds of cases since 1985—many of them high-profile and diverse: from spies to priests accused of sexual abuse, from high-level government officials accused of corruption to financial and tax-services executives prosecuted by the federal government, from custody battles to malpractice suits. Ms. Drake is a member in good standing of the American Society for Trial Consultants.

Ms. Drake studied for three years in New York City with the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler and has an MFA in directing from Carnegie-Mellon University, as well as a BA from Bennington College in Vermont. For her entire career, Ms. Drake has been a professional theater director, producer, and voice coach. While on the artistic staff of Arena Stage in Washington, DC, Ms. Drake began applying her professional skills in a course called “Acting for Lawyers.” The course was enormously successful and soon after expanded into On Trial Associates, Inc.