Advocacy Training at Baylor Law School

Advocacy

Practice Court

Nowhere is the Baylor emphasis on lawyering skills more apparent than in its nationally renowned advocacy program. Students are taught, from the first day of law school, not only substantive law, but also procedural law and the strategic and tactical application of the law. Courses like Civil Procedure, Remedies, Federal Courts, Conflicts of Law, Federal Practice, Trial Advocacy Skills, and Evidence introduce students to the skills necessary to the successful trial lawyer.

The bedrock of Baylor advocacy training has, since 1922, been the Practice Court course, a six-month course required of every third-year student. This ten-hour course was devised by the late Chief Justice James P. Alexander to bridge the gap between the student's academic training and the problems of actual practice. Practice Court is dedicated to rigorous instruction in procedure and trial advocacy skills. Students study procedural law in great depth, developing an appreciation for the kind of precision essential to a skilled lawyer. Students also learn fundamental techniques for the trial of a jury case, direct and cross examination of witnesses, jury argument, evidence skills, voir dire examination, and jury selection. During Practice Court, students try at least five cases. As concluded by the editor of the American Bar Association's Litigation News, "...Baylor law students get a degree of trial advocacy training unusual among the nation's law schools."

While one mission of the Practice Court program is to prepare students for litigation and trial practice, the program's broader mission is to prepare each student to be a competent, responsible, and ethical lawyer and human being, whether the student ever sees the inside of a courtroom or not. Students enrolled in the Practice Court program are introduced to the realities of modern law practice and the responsibilities of lawyers to clients, courts, and society. Moreover, through Practice Court especially, Baylor students develop an appreciation for attention to detail, for precision in analysis, thought, expression, and communication. Indeed, these skills are invaluable to all students regardless of what field of legal practice the student chooses to enter. The thinking and communication skills and the familiarity with the litigation process developed in Practice Court are critically important to students planning careers in areas other than litigation, such as business planning, real estate, and other non-litigation fields.