This lawyering skills course gives students an orientation to and constant practice in the most basic pretrial and trial advocacy skills. Topics include: taking and defending depositions, trial evidence, including admission of trial exhibits in evidence and use of prior witness statements to refresh and impeach a witness, jury selection and voir dire, opening statements, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and closing arguments. Students will try a full jury case through to verdict with the use of jurors and usually before a real judge in the courthouse in Palo Alto at the end of the course. Students will also have a chance to watch the jurors deliberate and talk with them after their verdict. The course takes place during eight weeks of the Autumn Quarter with two classes (one lecture and one workshop) per week on most weeks from 4:LAW 15-9:LAW 00 PM, plus the final weekend of jury trials, Saturday and Sunday, November LAW 15 and LAW 16. Each day's ending time will vary; most sessions will end before 9:LAW 00 PM. For details, please refer to the 2025 Trial Advocacy Workshop Schedule at http://bit.ly/3Zx8O5g. The format for each topic begins with a lecture/discussion featuring video vignettes of various techniques and a live demonstration by an expert trial lawyer. Following the discussion portion of each topic are small group sessions during which each student practices the skills involved. Constructive feedback is given after each exercise by two of our faculty of very experienced Bay Area litigators and judges. Most exercises are also videoed for further one-on-one critique by another faculty member. The central philosophy of the workshop is that skills are best acquired in an experiential manner by seeing and doing. Frequent short, well-defined exercises followed by immediate constructive feedback in a non-competitive, non-threatening atmosphere provide the core of the program. The workshop directors are Judge Sallie Kim, Traci Owens, and Claude Stern. Sallie is a United States Magistrate Judge in San Francisco and was a partner in a civil litigation firm, and also previously taught a class at SLS and served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Traci has LAW 23 years of trial experience. She has participated as an instructor in the Stanford Law School Trial Advocacy program for more than a decade, and she taught in a similar program at Santa Clara University School of Law for more than fifteen years. Claude was a complex civil trial lawyer and litigator, emphasizing Intellectual Property disputes for LAW 40 years, and now serves as a JAMS mediator and arbitrator. He has been a Stanford Law School Trial Advocacy lecturer since 1990. Special Instructions: If you haven't taken Evidence, you must contact Judge Kim before the course begins for some brief pre-course reading assignments. There are no papers or tests, but attendance at every session is required. Since we will begin our trial advocacy exercises on the first day of class, all students who are interested in taking the course (whether enrolled or on the waitlist) need to be present for the first class. (Students who are not present will be dropped from the class or waiting list unless they have made previous arrangements with the professor.) Add-drop decisions need to be resolved at the first class; no drops will be permitted thereafter. Exceptions to this rule will be made by petition only. Mandatory attendance. Elements used in grading: Attendance and in-class assignments.CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS Registrar website https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. Click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page, and then click the "Consent Courses" tab. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.
5 units · Law Mandatory P/R/F
This lawyering skills course gives students an orientation to and constant practice in the most basic pretrial and trial advocacy skills. Topics include: taking and defending depositions, trial evidence, including admission of trial exhibits in evidence and use of prior witness statements to refresh and impeach a witness, jury selection and voir dire, opening statements, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and closing arguments. Students will try a full jury case through to verdict with the use of jurors and usually before a real judge in the courthouse in Palo Alto at the end of the course. Students will also have a chance to watch the jurors deliberate and talk with them after their verdict. The course takes place during eight weeks of the Autumn Quarter with two classes (one lecture and one workshop) per week on most weeks from 4:15-9:00 PM, plus the final weekend of jury trials, Saturday and Sunday, November 15 and 16. Each day's ending time will vary; most sessions will end before 9:00 PM. For details, please refer to the 2025 Trial Advocacy Workshop Schedule at http://bit.ly/3Zx8O5g. The format for each topic begins with a lecture/discussion featuring video vignettes of various techniques and a live demonstration by an expert trial lawyer. Following the discussion portion of each topic are small group sessions during which each student practices the skills involved. Constructive feedback is given after each exercise by two of our faculty of very experienced Bay Area litigators and judges. Most exercises are also videoed for further one-on-one critique by another faculty member. The central philosophy of the workshop is that skills are best acquired in an experiential manner by seeing and doing. Frequent short, well-defined exercises followed by immediate constructive feedback in a non-competitive, non-threatening atmosphere provide the core of the program. The workshop directors are Judge Sallie Kim, Traci Owens, and Claude Stern. Sallie is a United States Magistrate Judge in San Francisco and was a partner in a civil litigation firm, and also previously taught a class at SLS and served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Traci has 23 years of trial experience. She has participated as an instructor in the Stanford Law School Trial Advocacy program for more than a decade, and she taught in a similar program at Santa Clara University School of Law for more than fifteen years. Claude was a complex civil trial lawyer and litigator, emphasizing Intellectual Property disputes for 40 years, and now serves as a JAMS mediator and arbitrator. He has been a Stanford Law School Trial Advocacy lecturer since 1990. Special Instructions: If you haven't taken Evidence, you must contact Judge Kim before the course begins for some brief pre-course reading assignments. There are no papers or tests, but attendance at every session is required. Since we will begin our trial advocacy exercises on the first day of class, all students who are interested in taking the course (whether enrolled or on the waitlist) need to be present for the first class. (Students who are not present will be dropped from the class or waiting list unless they have made previous arrangements with the professor.) Add-drop decisions need to be resolved at the first class; no drops will be permitted thereafter. Exceptions to this rule will be made by petition only. Mandatory attendance. Elements used in grading: Attendance and in-class assignments.CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS Registrar website https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. Click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page, and then click the "Consent Courses" tab. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.
Offered in Autumn 2025 at Stanford University.