January 31, 2025

Trial advocacy training at BayLegal

This January, more than 35 Bay Area Legal Aid staff attorneys and managers built their capacity and honed their skills as advocates in a week-long intensive trial advocacy training.

The training was made possible by partnerships with private attorneys and partner organizations. Our lead trainer, Justin Bernstein, who directs the trial advocacy program at UCLA Law School, gave us a generously discounted rate for the training, several assistant trainers donated their time, and the State Bar provided their training facility.

Spencer Pahlke (Shareholder, Walkup Melodia Kelly + Schoenberger, trainer assistant), with Brenda Star Adams (BayLegal Director of Litigation)
L to R: Nick Cotter (Alameda County Public Defender, Lecturer at UC Berkeley Law School, and trainer assistant), Justin Bernstein (Director of the A. Barry Capello Program in Trial Advocacy, UCLA School of Law, primary trainer), and Paul von Autenreid (Associate, Keker Van Nest & Peters, trainer assistant)

The training consisted of three days of lectures and workshops on direct and cross examinations, objections, expert witnesses, and opening and closing statements, followed by a mock trial. Staff had a single day to prepare and on the final day, teams of two presented their cases against one another and honed their newly refined trial advocacy skills.

BayLegal attorneys mentioned the opportunity to learn from colleagues with various levels of experience as a primary benefit of the training:

“My absolute favorite thing about this training was getting to spend time in-person with all of my amazing, accomplished colleagues and being able to learn alongside them.” 

“I really liked the mixed experience levels I got to work with as each one had different strategies.”

Participants also highlighted new skills developed in the training, or opportunities to develop and hone their existing trial skill sets:

“I had not felt very confident in directing/cross examining witnesses before this, but I feel like I got a lot of good pointers on how to structure both of these aspects of a trial so that I could get the most out of witness testimony. I learned how to think about what to prioritize, what information was most important to get out of each kind of testimony, and how to think on my feet during a direct/cross/redirect.”

Justin Bernstein presenting to the group

“None of the previous trial trainings I’ve attended covered expert testimony. I took that on during the mock trial to get some practice and I enjoyed that. I also understand closing arguments better after being taken out of my practice area and taught the essentials. It finally clicked.”

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