Jack Sharman Publishes First Article in 2025 Law360 Series on Mythic Archetypes and White-Collar Trials

March 26, 2025

Partner Jack Sharman, who chairs Lightfoot’s White-Collar Criminal Defense & Corporate Investigations practice group, published the first article in a quarterly series he is writing in 2025 for Law360. He will explore how defense attorneys can apply the eight classic character archetypes from the "hero's journey" identified by screenwriter and author Christopher Vogler to white-collar trials. The series is a follow-up to an article Sharman wrote last year for Law360 on those mythic archetypes, and each article in 2025 will examine them more closely. 

For his first piece, “White Collar Archetypes: Wrangling The Shape-Shifter,” Sharman explored how the shape-shifter archetype shows up in white-collar trials, both as witnesses and deceptive data. 

On their face, factual evidence and witness testimony appear fixed and have a singular meaning. Yet, the interpretations can shape how juries — the heroes in the courtroom — view the facts. 

“The same evidence, whether a document or a witness's testimony, can change shape in the juror's eye, just as a film's shape-shifter character changes in the hero's eye,” writes Sharman.

Sharman’s article outlines how that shape-shifting happens as well as where it shows up in the context of a white-collar trial. He offers solutions for making use of or countering that archetype. 

Sharman has practiced law for more than 30 years and leads Lightfoot’s White-Collar Criminal Defense and Corporate Investigations practice. He was special counsel to the House Banking Committee during its Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. In 2016, he was appointed as special counsel to the Alabama House Judiciary Committee for the impeachment investigation of former Alabama Governor Robert Bentley.