Center for Advocacy & Dispute Resolution

The Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution will help prepare you to become an outstanding advocate, whether your career takes you to the courtroom, the boardroom or beyond. U.S. News & World Report ranked our Trial Advocacy Program No. 7 among the leading programs in the nation in its 2019 Best Graduate Schools guide. The reason for that ranking is due in large part to the success of our outstanding Mock Trial and Moot Court teams, which consistently win awards in regional and national competitions. Read the fall 2018 Advocacy Center newsletter.

The Center has provided training programs around the globe, including in Chile, Italy, Cambodia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kosovo. In fact, we received a $2.1 million USAID grant to train Chinese law professors in experiential teaching. From 2016-2018 we also provided a similar program as part of the United States/Russia Foundation (USRF) in collaboration with the Russian Foreign Trade Academy Law School (Moscow).

Our mission is to prepare you to excel as an advocate who can ethically and skillfully represent clients in an array of legal matters.

Our faculty have written books used by law schools across the nation.

• Advocacy Books
• National Advocacy Practice Survey
• Advocacy Faculty Scholarship

• Competition Teams
  • Mock Trial
  • Moot Court
• Executive Training in Mediation and Negotiation
• Lou Ashe Series
  • Books, Movies, Crime and The Law
  • Does Law School Really Have to Be Bleak House — or, Why Do We Still Teach Jarndyce v. Jarndyce?
  • The Misuse of Other-Acts Evidence Obliterates The Rule Against Convicting on Propensity
• National Ethics Trial Competition

Student Awards

• Ben Frantz First-Year Mock Trial Competition
  • Top Three, plus awards for Best Opening, Best Direct Examination, Best Cross Examination, Best Closing, and Most Professional
• Ferris-White Trial Advocacy and Mock Trial Competition Prize
• Joseph E. Taylor Service Award
• CourtCall Prize in Mock Trial / Trial Advocacy
  • CourtCall, a leader in provision of remote court appearances, has generously donated an annual prize of $250 to be awarded to the graduating senior who has distinguished themselves as a top participant in Trial Advocacy, Mock Trial Competition Team, and Trial Advocacy Association courses and activities. The criteria are:
    • High grade / performance in Trial Advocacy and Advanced Trial Advocacy
    • Distinguished performance on the Mock Trial Team, measured by both achievements in competitions and evaluations by the Team coaches
    • Service to the mock-trial community at McGeorge, including service to the student-run Ben Frantz First-Year Mock Trial Competition and the Trial Advocacy Association

• Global Lawyering Skills
• Trial & Appellate Advocacy Certificate of Concentration

Contact Cary Bricker, Professor of Lawyering Skills, Director, Mock Trial Competition Program, Co-Director, Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution
Email | 916.739.7236

Contact Thomas J. Leach, Director, Trial Advocacy & National Ethics Trial Competition
Email | 916.739.7002

Contact Ed Telfeyan, Moot Court Faculty Advisor
Email | 916.739.7340