In Class Advocacy
In our criminal justice class earlier today, Professor Dan Williams assigned two pairs of students to represent the prosecution and defense in a case using a fact pattern from an actual case in Texas from 1984. We're about 5 weeks into the semester, and this type of teaching is a really great way of applying the doctrine we have learned in class to the type of situations that we will eventually be confronting as lawyers.
The facts of the case were pretty horrific, and on first read really seemed to work against the defendant. Going into class I was pretty convinced that that the defense was going to lose this case, but one of my good friends was on the defense team, which did a fantastic job of applying the law to the facts of the case. By the end of the class, Professor Williams polled us, and most of us thought that the defense won the case.
In addition to teaching us substantive criminal law and procedure, Professor Williams tries to instill in his class many of the methods that he used as a litigator. He especially focuses on the personal traits -- confidence, self-assurance, quick thinking, and rhetorical strategies -- that are key tools that a litigator needs to be successful.
The first draft of our LSSC project is due in a few hours, so I should probably get back to that. Enjoy the weekend.