Events Calendar

By this point in law school you’ve learned the foundations of black letter law. You’ve learned the foundations of legal research. You’ve learned the foundations of legal writing.

Maybe you came to law school after years of participating in speech and debate. Maybe you were active in student government or community organizing. Or maybe you’ve never done any public speaking at all. Whether you end up spending every day in the courtroom arguing to a judge or group of jurors, or in a boardroom advocating to a group of venture capitalists, a necessary part of our profession is public speaking.

You advocate every day already. You are advocating for yourself when you write cover letters. You advocate when you interview for summer clerkships. You are using advocacy when you present at your upcoming LRW oral argument and even when you write exams or answer questions in class.

ADVOCACY MATTERS.

If you didn’t already experience success as an advocate, you wouldn’t be in law school. The art of advocacy as a lawyer is an important part of your legal education, no matter where your career in law takes you.

The upcoming Workshop will offer you a chance to add more skills to your repertoire. Professors from the Advocacy Department at the University of Texas School of Law will offer two sessions for the 1L Public Speaking Workshop on Friday, February 8th and Friday, February 15th, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. You will be taught by successful trial lawyers and talented National Mock Trial Champions; you will be taught by lawyers who are hired to teach experienced lawyers how to be even better.

You will be on your feet. You will be practicing voice and gestures. You will work on fluidity and rhythm and pace and cadence and tone. No matter what your skill level when you walked in the door, in two hours, you will be a better advocate than before. And if you show up at 12:30, we’ll even feed you lunch.

Please contact Marla Massin at mmassin@law.utexas.edu to request a registration form. In order to tailor the workshop to your current skill level and let you get the most out of the workshop, the form includes a brief self- assessment of your current public speaking experience so that we may group people with similar experience levels together. Registration forms will also be available outside of the Advocacy Program Office, CCJ 3.338.