Trial advocacy

Trial advocacy is the branch of knowledge concerned with making attorneys and other advocates more effective in trial proceedings. Trial advocacy is taught in primary, secondary, and undergraduate schools (usually associated with a mock trial elective). It is taught as an essential trade skill for litigators in law schools and in continuing legal education programs.

The skills of trial advocacy can be broken into two categories: skills that accomplish individual tasks (tactical skills) such as selecting jurors, delivering opening statements and closing arguments, and examining witnesses, and those skills that integrate the individual actions to achieve greater effects and to drive unfolding events toward the advocate’s desired outcome (strategy) .

Most law school trial advocacy courses focus on tactical skills, though some integrate basic methods of strategic planning. Some academics have expressed disfavor with advanced strategic techniques because of the imbalance they create, especially against attorneys who are unaware of them. Proponents of advanced strategic techniques argue that these methods are the only effective means to counter the already-existing imbalances in the system, as between indigent defendants and the state, and between working-class plaintiffs and well-resourced, wealthy corporations.