Feature Story: Intensive Trial Advocacy
“I think we learn best by doing,” says Professor James Seckinger of his approach to the Intensive Trial Advocacy course at Notre Dame Law School. “After a week of simulated courtroom exercises, our judges couldn’t believe they were the same students. Many commented that they were better than some of the lawyers they see practicing in their courtrooms.”
While teaching at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in 1973, Seckinger developed his own case-study approach to teaching trial advocacy. He brought the innovative method with him when he began teaching at Notre Dame in 1974 and, consequently, was charged with developing the Law School’s trial advocacy programs.
He began the popular and challenging Intensive Trial Advocacy course in 2003. The course provides students the opportunity to develop their trial practice skills and gain litigation experiences through simulated courtroom exercises. One of the major pieces of the program’s success is that top litigators from major law firms as well as judges and justices from across the country come to campus to advise and coach students.
Notre Dame Law School alumni, Notre Dame undergraduate alumni, and lawyers without a connection to Notre Dame participate as mentors to these aspiring advocates. Volunteer lawyers and judges come from New York City, Washington D.C., Austin, Cleveland, Detroit, South Bend, Chicago, Wheaton, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Palo Alto. Others include judges from the state and federal benches and lawyers from national law firms such as Dewey LeBoeuf, Jenner Block, Jones Day, Kirkland Ellis, and Winston Strawn.
Second and third year law students are eligible to enroll in the course, which begins a week before the start of each semester. “We cover all parts of the trial and go 8:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.,” says Seckinger. “The students get really excited about it and are able to get feedback everyday from different people. It is not something they can get from a traditional law class.”
Because of the course’s popularity and size limitations, there is always a waiting list of students hoping to secure one of the coveted 40 spots. Another aspect of the course’s popularity is it’s attraction to second year law students who are able to use their experience in the intensive trial advocacy course in their summer clerkship.
“This was an extremely useful week,” says NDLS student and program participant Andrew LaBreche. “I feel far more comfortable thinking on my feet and speaking in public than I did before, and I understand the process of how a trial works much better.”
Intensive Trial Ad participants continue to meet once a week throughout the duration of the spring semester. During that time, each student acts as a trial lawyer in two trials—one jury and one judge trial—and also serves as a witness or observer in one jury and one judge trial.
NDLS’s program is always ranked in the top 10 of trial advocacy programs in the country by US News and World Report, and many applicants are drawn to the Law School for this special program. “The Law School remains one of a few highly-ranked law schools with a great trial advocacy program,” Seckinger said. “I am pleased that the Law School continues to deliver on this reputation.”
