Class Schedule

The 28005 section of this course will be taught in person but with the option of occasional remote participation via Zoom.  If students require all remote participation, they must register for the 28006 section of this course, which is identical but web-based.

This course meets for the first seven weeks of the semester: August 27 - October 8, 2020.

A course focusing on real-life cases and key strategic decisions made immediately before and during trial to position you for success. Nationally renowned trial master, David Beck, will demonstrate, share secrets and teach strategy.  This is an advanced course. Texas Civil Procedure and Advocacy classes are recommended prior courses.

So you know the basics of litigation, what next? Are you ready to take a deposition, represent a client in mediation or try a case to an arbitrator? An effective advocate needs the knowledge and skill to assess which dispute resolution process best suits the case. In this practice intensive class, you will develop essential skills for a modern litigator whose most significant "trials" may occur outside a traditional courtroom. Working with arbitrators, mediators, lawyers and judges, students will develop and hone their deposition and negotiation skills as well as handle a mediation, arbitration and summary jury trial. This is a 4-credit class (2 credits pass/fail, 2 credits graded).  Required Prerequisite: Advocacy Survey OR ADR survey, OR Mediation.

So you know the basics of litigation, what next? Are you ready to take a deposition, represent a client in mediation or try a case to an arbitrator? An effective advocate needs the knowledge and skill to assess which dispute resolution process best suits the case. In this practice intensive class, you will develop essential skills for a modern litigator whose most significant "trials" may occur outside a traditional courtroom. Working with arbitrators, mediators, lawyers and judges, students will develop and hone their deposition and negotiation skills as well as handle a mediation, arbitration and summary jury trial. This is a 4-credit class (2 credits pass/fail, 2 credits graded). Required Prerequisite: Advocacy Survey OR ADR survey, OR Mediation.

This class is limited to 3L students. It is for students who have mastered the basic and advanced advocacy skills and will focus on cutting-edge advocacy theories and techniques. The class combines both discussion and practice sessions focusing on both traditional legal exercises and other experimental approaches to advocacy. Students will also spend several weeks learning and practicing how to conduct a voir dire examination and will perform a full voir dire using independent jurors.  Students will work with Dell Medical students on a trial. This class operates in a seminar fashion as well as focusing on skills-based training. The class has an extensive reading/discussion list in addition to the skill work and outside research. Suggested prerequisites: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, and Advanced Advocacy work such as appellate advocacy,  ADR courses, clinics or interscholastic work.

This class is limited to 3L students. It is for students who have mastered the basic and advanced advocacy skills and will focus on cutting-edge advocacy theories and techniques. The class combines both discussion and practice sessions focusing on both traditional legal exercises and other experimental approaches to advocacy. Students will also spend several weeks learning and practicing how to conduct a voir dire examination and will perform a full voir dire using independent jurors.  Students will work with Dell Medical students on a trial. This class operates in a seminar fashion as well as focusing on skills-based training. The class has an extensive reading/discussion list in addition to the skill work and outside research. Suggested prerequisites: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, and Advanced Advocacy work such as appellate advocacy,  ADR courses, clinics or interscholastic work.

This class is limited to 3L students. It is for students who have mastered the basic and advanced advocacy skills and will focus on cutting-edge advocacy theories and techniques. The class combines both discussion and practice sessions focusing on both traditional legal exercises and other experimental approaches to advocacy. Students will also spend several weeks learning and practicing how to conduct a voir dire examination and will perform a full voir dire using independent jurors.  Students will work with Dell Medical students on a trial. This class operates in a seminar fashion as well as focusing on skills-based training. The class has an extensive reading/discussion list in addition to the skill work and outside research. Suggested prerequisites: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, and Advanced Advocacy work such as appellate advocacy,  ADR courses, clinics or interscholastic work.

This class is limited to 3L students. It is for students who have mastered the basic and advanced advocacy skills and will focus on cutting-edge advocacy theories and techniques. The class combines both discussion and practice sessions focusing on both traditional legal exercises and other experimental approaches to advocacy. Students will also spend several weeks learning and practicing how to conduct a voir dire examination and will perform a full voir dire using independent jurors.  Students will work with Dell Medical students on a trial. This class operates in a seminar fashion as well as focusing on skills-based training. The class has an extensive reading/discussion list in addition to the skill work and outside research. Suggested prerequisites: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, and Advanced Advocacy work such as appellate advocacy,  ADR courses, clinics or interscholastic work.

This class is limited to 3L students. It is for students who have mastered the basic and advanced advocacy skills and will focus on cutting-edge advocacy theories and techniques. The class combines both discussion and practice sessions focusing on both traditional legal exercises and new non-verbal behavior techniques and other experimental approaches to advocacy. Students will practice mirroring, anchoring and technology presentations as well as storytelling and personality profiling. Students will also spend several weeks learning and practicing how to conduct a voir dire examination and will perform a full voir dire using independent jurors. This year the class will create and design problem solving litigation. This class operates in a seminar fashion as well as focusing on skills-based training. The class has an extensive reading/discussion list in addition to the skill work and outside research. Required prerequisites: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, and Advanced Advocacy work such as appellate advocacy,  ADR courses, clinics or interscholastic work.

You spent the first year of law school analyzing published cases. The emphasis of much of your reading was on the results of published cases and the legal principles each case teaches. Importantly, while trial court judges can publish written opinions on discreet issues, most of your previous reading focused on appellate court opinions. Every appellate court opinion begins with a narrative of the facts. The facts are critical in developing the legal opinions pronounced by the opinion. The way the facts are recited often allows the reader to begin developing a just result in the case simply by the way the facts are presented.

But what does the first year of law school teach you about developing facts? We certainly spend a great deal of time analyzing facts, but how do you produce them? How do facts become evidence? Why do some facts seem to matter more than other facts? At a time in our society when it is hard to find common ground on what constitutes an objective fact, how do current attitudes (and social media) affect our profession where so much of the law depends upon the facts?

And nestled somewhere between Evidence and Federal Courts perhaps our Course Catalog will one day have a class devoted entirely to Facts. Because no matter what type of law you practice, you’re going to have to deal with the facts of your case. You’re going to have to deal with the good facts, the bad facts, and the ambiguous facts. Whether you practice Admiralty Law or Wills and Estates, you must wrestle with disputed facts. And mostly importantly you, the lawyer, must find facts. Facts do not announce themselves, and rarely does the judge or jury understand the significance of any fact. Like latent fingerprints, we often see only remnants and traces of facts. These facts are never reviewed by an appellate court unless they are collected, preserved, interpreted, presented, and introduced as evidence. It is our job to find truth and extract justice for our clients by distilling the vapor of nuance from these latent facts.  

This class is a guide to that process.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy Survey is designed for all law students. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire, and trial.

This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire, and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence is strongly preferred.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire, and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire, and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

The 27975 section of this course will be taught in person but with the option of occasional remote participation via Zoom.  If students require all remote participation, they must register for the 27976 section of this course, which is identical but web-based.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded).

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy survey is designed for beginning advocacy students who are interested in gaining exposure to all areas of advocacy. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case.

Advocacy Survey Skills is designed to teach you how to practice law.

And by you we mean all law students, not just those who intend to become litigators or trial lawyers.  You are notexpected to have any background in public speaking, moot court, or mock trial. There is a misperception that only students who enjoy public speaking attend law school, or further, that you will leave law school a fantastic public speaker as every course helps improve your advocacy. Instead, by the end of their first year some students forgo litigation and trial work because they erroneously believe you either have a gift for public speaking or not. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our job is to make each of you outstanding advocates no matter what your comfort level is coming into our class. As a former student courageously explained:

"I want you to know this class changed my life. In our very first storytelling session, I told Prof. Lein I was terrified of courtrooms. That was 100% true. I came into law school convinced I'd become a transactional lawyer because of prior work experience and my dislike of courtrooms--where "transactional lawyer" is maybe shorthand for "doesn't do any public speaking" and "doesn't argue with people."

I'm not afraid of courtrooms anymore, but there's more to it than that. Tackling my fear in this class, in the graceful way you teach it, has truly changed my life. A whole new side of the law has opened up for me to explore, as well as a whole new way of showing up in the world."

We only have three short years to prepare you for the practice of law, and we want you to be ready on Day One. This course is designed to teach you the skills to be successful in whichever type of law you practice.

Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case.

Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case.