Advanced Oral Arguments

Catalog description

The course will build on the skills introduced in Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing (LARW) II and allow students to further develop their oral advocacy skills in the context of civil or criminal appellate practice. After the first class session, students will be assigned to take a civil or criminal track for the remainder of the course. Criminal and civil students will then meet separately during the course. The students will learn how to advocate for their client by highlighting their arguments' strengths, learning to distinguish opposing cases, and, importantly, how to present the best argument in fifteen minutes or less. The course will focus on the preparation needed to succeed at oral argument. The course will be taught primarily through practice drills but will also include classroom instruction on organizing the argument, preparing for questions, and researching your opposing party's strongest cases. The course will end with a graded oral argument. Prerequisite(s): LARW II. Satisfies skills requirement. Graded.