Study

This practical skills course focuses on the path civil litigators must navigate prior to trial. It is becoming increasingly rare for cases to be decided by a jury.  Lawyers must instead learn to succeed during the pretrial process.  We will examine the key components of the civil pretrial litigation process, beginning with the filing of a law suit.  The class will be divided into law firms on the second week of class. You will work with co-counsel, representing a hypothetical client, for the entire semester.  Law firms will prepare and serve discovery and respond to discovery from opposing counsel. Students will prepare and argue a short discovery motion. The last four weeks of class focus on depositions, with each student taking and defending a deposition. This course will help students synthesize and more deeply understand the strategy and the practical application of civil procedure and evidence rules used in litigation advocacy. 

Topics  include:

• Drafting pleadings and motions
• Preparing and responding to discovery
• Taking and defending depositions
• Practicing becoming a more effective advocate in the current on-line environment facing all attorneys and courts.

The course grade is based on written and practical skills-based work product and class participation, as described in the syllabus.  There is not a final exam.

Professor and Magistrate Judge Natalie Adams will teach both the Fall and Spring sections of Criminal Trial Practice having taught the course in the Spring of 2024. A former AUSA trying RICO and other major cases, and then a white-collar defense lawyer in private practice, Professor Adams is an ’08 graduate of DLS and of this course

In Fall 2024, Criminal Trial Practice will meet on a compressed schedule like that of the Spring Trial Practice sections. The fall dates are Thursday evening, 9/1; Saturday 9/14, and Sunday 9/15 for an intensive weekend, and then regular class sessions on four Monday afternoons 9/23. 9/30, 10/7, and 10/21. After the regular sessions end, students, in teams of two, will try a case on one of these days: 11/1, 11/2 or 11/3 to conclude their work in the course fully a month before classes end.

Students taking Evidence in the fall may take Criminal Trial Practice concurrently with the course.