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Mock Trials: Preparing, Presenting, and Winning Your Case, Third Edition

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Authors
  • Jill R. Koster
  • Steven Lubet
Series / NITA
BOOKMARK
Book length
352 pages
Publication Date
2024-06-27
Edition
Third Edition
Teaching Materials
NO
Description
Table of contents
The key to victory in a mock trial begins with preparation weeks, sometimes months, before a competitor begins their opening statement. Long before the prevailing party calls its first witness, the foundation for understanding the facts and preparing to admit and challenge the evidence is built. All the tools needed for success are laid out in this guidebook to greatness. Using diagrams, charts, and checklists, the third edition of Mock Trials provides an updated, step-by-step guide to preparing, presenting, and winning trial competitions at every level. Practice tips provide methods to demonstrate to the judge your thorough understanding of the case, the rules of evidence, and courtroom procedure.

Starting with the basics of how trials work and courtrooms are set up, Mock Trials walks through the entire process, from case preparation and research, to the rules of evidence and procedure, communication skills, and pretrial motions. You will learn how to examine your witnesses, raise evidentiary objections, introduce exhibits, and cross-examine opposing witnesses, including experts. This third edition also adds guidance for serving as an effective witness and preparing witnesses to testify at trial.

From the time you make your opening statement to the conclusion of your closing argument, this manual is the resource you need for the direction and confidence to succeed. It is clear enough to assist those new to trial competitions yet sufficiently robust that practicing attorneys also keep a copy on hand for easy reference.

New to the Third Edition:
  • Chapter on Witness Preparation
  • Updated, accessible text
  • Tables and checklists 
Professors and students will benefit from:
  • Bullet-point reference review in each chapter
  • Examples that enhance understanding
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About the authors
Jill R. Koster

Jill Koster currently teaches courses on the effective presentation of digital evidence to U.S. military Judge Advocate Generals, digital forensic examiners, and criminal investigators on behalf of the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). She has taught trial advocacy for over 30 years to students of all ages and experience levels, including as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, Illinois (her alma mater) and George Washington University’s School of Law in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Koster served as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice for seventeen years, first as a Trial Attorney with the Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section in Washington D.C., and then as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Northern District of Indiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands. While in the Virgin Islands, she served as Criminal Chief and was responsible for supervising the office’s Appellate Chief, Deputy Criminal Chief, AUSAs, paralegals, and support staff, as well as reviewing and approving all criminal charges, plea agreements and appellate briefs. As a federal prosecutor, Ms. Koster investigated and prosecuted child exploitation, fraud (bank, grant, mail, securities, tax and wire), identity theft, kidnapping, public corruption, sex trafficking and true threat cases, among others. She is the recipient of 5 FBI Director’s Awards, the “Outstanding Advocacy for the Protection of Citizens from Online Crime Award” bestowed by the Assistant U.S. Attorney General, and 21 DOJ performance awards. Ms. Koster began her career as Law Clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Gettleman in the Northern District of Illinois before joining the Chicago office of Bartlit Beck, LLP, where she handled complex commercial litigation including breach of contract, patent and product liability matters.

Ms. Koster’s textbook, Mock Trials: Preparing, Presenting and Winning Your Case, was first published by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) in 2000 and is now in its third edition.

Steven Lubet

Steven Lubet is a Professor of Law at Northwestern University. As Director of the Law School’s Program on Advocacy and Professionalism, he teaches courses on Legal Ethics, Trial Advocacy, Pretrial Litigation, and Negotiation. In addition to over fifty books and articles on legal ethics and litigation, he has published widely in the areas of international criminal law and dispute resolution. Professor Lubet is the author of Modern Trial Advocacy (currently in its sixth edition, which is co-authored by J.C. Lore), which has also been published in Canadian and Israeli editions. Professor Lubet is co-author of Judicial Conduct and Ethics (Lexis, 2000) (also currently in its sixth edition), which has been called the nation’s leading authority on judicial ethics. Professor Lubet’s other books include Nothing but the Truth: Why Trial Lawyers Don’t, Can’t and Shouldn’t Have to Tell the Whole Truth (NYU Press, 2001), as well as Exercises and Problems in Professional Responsibility (NITA) and Problems and Materials in Evidence and Trial Advocacy (NITA), both co-authored with Northwestern University School of Law Professors Robert Burns and Thomas Geraghty. In conjunction with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, he has organized litigation programs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Product Information
Edition
Third Edition
Publication date
2024-06-27
Copyright Year
2024
Pages
352
Paperback
9798886690576
Subject
Trial Practice
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