Spring 2025
Professor(s):
Judge Genesis Draper (ADJUNCT)
Natalie Ware (ADJUNCT)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Blakely Advocacy Simulation
Time: 6:00p-9:00p M Location: 260
Course Outline: Advanced Trial Advocacy builds off of the skills learned in Trial Advocacy by focusing on the techniques of persuasion. Students in this intensive course learn about using focus groups, developing and refining case theories and themes, selecting juries in light of the case theory being pursued, and presenting understandable and persuasive exhibits and expert testimony. Students try three jury trials during the course of the semester.
The course will combine lecture, round table discussion, court observation and summary, as well as three jury trials during the course of the semester. Materials will include necessary National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) materials, as well as the textbook Mauet ¿ Trials. Students are expected to provide a significant amount of input for preparation of jury trials, including consideration of pertinent evidence as well as organization and presentation of evidence and argument. The final jury trial will be based on an actual toxic tort case, Behringer v. Alcoa, Inc., et al, for which all necessary evidentiary materials will be provided. Students will be free to work on the final trial throughout the semester, incorporating strategies, tactics and techniques learned during the course of the semester.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Quota = 16
Prerequisites: Yes Trial Advocacy
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: simulation
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Unavailable (Instructor Preference)
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: Thomas A. Mauet, "Trials Techniques and Trials" - 9th edition, Aspen Publishers, ISBN: 9781454822332 plus other materials found online or from professor
Recommended: Goode & Wellborn, "Courtroom Evidence Handbook 2016-2017 Student Edition," Thomson West, ISBN: 9781634607421.
