Trial Advocacy Workshop

Catalog description

This lawyering skills course gives students an orientation to and constant practice in the most basic pretrial and trial advocacy skills. Topics include: taking and defending depositions, trial evidence, including admission of trial exhibits in evidence and use of prior witness statements to refresh and impeach a witness, jury selection and voir dire, opening statements, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and closing arguments. Students will try a full jury case through to verdict with the use of jurors and usually before a real judge in the courthouse in Palo Alto at the end of the course. Students will also have a chance to watch the jurors deliberate and talk with them after their verdict. The course takes place during eight weeks of the Autumn Quarter with two classes (one lecture and one workshop) per week on most weeks from 4:15-9:00 PM, plus the final weekend of jury trials, Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15. Each day's ending time will vary; most sessions will end before 9:00 PM. For details, please refer to the 2026 Trial Advocacy Workshop Schedule at https://shorturl.at/aMNZj. The format for each topic begins with a lecture/discussion featuring video vignettes of various techniques and a live demonstration by an expert trial lawyer. Following the discussion portion of each topic are small group sessions during which each student practices the skills involved. Constructive feedback is given after each exercise by two of our faculty of very experienced Bay Area litigators and judges. Most exercises are also videoed for further one-on-one critique by another faculty member. The central philosophy of the workshop is that skills are best acquired in an experiential manner by seeing and doing. Frequent short, well-defined exercises followed by immediate constructive feedback in a non-competitive, non-threatening atmosphere provide the core of the…