Advocacy

Course Code: PRLG 5300

Academic Year: 2025-2026

Students in this course will develop the skills, techniques and framework for implementing effective courtroom and tribunal advocacy strategies. Students will work through the phases of litigation from the drafting of pleadings to the pre-trial process, and from the preparation of witnesses to trial strategies and presentation. Students gain fluency in the techniques for presenting opening statements and closing arguments, conducting direct examinations and cross-examinations, making appropriate objections and challenging expert evidence in a simulated court or tribunal setting. The course examines how the rules of evidence, privileged communications, and evidentiary burdens shape the case presentation. Techniques for dealing with witnesses, including the evasive witness, the biased witness and the mistaken witness will be addressed as well. The importance of advanced preparation is emphasized throughout the course through the use of checklists, case briefs, witness statements and trial notebooks. The ethics of advocacy from the beginning of an action to the end of the trial is emphasized throughout.