DWS Trial Advocacy

Catalog description

Trial Advocacy is a 2-L simulation course. Using the interrogatories and deposition transcripts they obtained in Pretrial Advocacy, students try their hand at controlling the witnesses in the trial setting. They also participate in a simulated criminal trial from beginning to end, complete with a student jury that deliberates. Students are taped so that they can watch and reflect upon their performance, keeping weekly logs of their progress. They receive feedback from peers, professors, lawyers, judges, jurors and witnesses. At the end of the course, each scholar prepares a reflective paper in which, using the MacCrate skills and values as a guide, the student identifies those skills and values that were addressed in the course, reflects upon the student's own perceived strengths and weaknesses, and discusses how the student plans to cultivate strengths and improve weaknesses. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.