Trial School is a private, confidential, and invitation-only organization that provides education and training for lawyers who represent people.
Trial School is different from all other trial advocacy programs in that it features a unique Mixed Method Advocacy, or âMMAâ approach.
There are many great trial advocacy programs which currently teach trial skills.
All of these programs fall into one of three basic categories.
Unique To The Plaintiff Side
The first are those programs that teach basic trial skills that apply equally to both plaintiff and defense attorneys.
Some of these programs, such as the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, or NITA, are incredible and extremely effective. However, these programs do not teach any of the advanced methods that are unique to the plaintiffâs side.
While some of the basic skills are the same for both plaintiff and defense lawyers, the advanced methods are very different between the two sides. Trial School teaches only advanced methods for plaintiff lawyers.
Diverse Perspective/Approach
The second type of trial advocacy program teaches only a single perspective or approach to trying a plaintiffâs case.
Some of these single method programs are great and their students have had phenomenal success using their methods. However, some of these programs teach dramatically different approaches to some of the most fundamental parts of trial, from voir dire, to opening statements, to closing arguments.
None of these programs teach a unified curriculum which attempts to combine the best practices from all of the different schools of thought and various cutting-edge methods for trying cases.
Unified Curriculum
Finally, in the third category, are the CLE trial advocacy programs frequently sponsored by various trial lawyer associations.
While excellent, these programs tend to be a hodgepodge of instructions based upon whichever lawyers are chosen by the organization to speak at each particular program. None of these programs use an agreed curriculum and often teach completely different approaches from year to year, and event to event.
Trial School is unique because it seeks to discover and teach a unified curriculum.
This curriculum is based upon a careful study of the all of the various methods by todayâs top trial lawyers, and seeks to combine the methods into recommended best practices.
The School has become a laboratory of collaboration between todayâs top national trial lawyers for developing best practices based on a study of all of the respective methods and schools of thought about how to most effectively try a case. The School also seeks to foster collaboration between the trial lawyer faculty and students for teaching Mixed Method Advocacy in a way thatâs digestible and easy to use in practice.
