6/3/2016

While the conclusion of spring semester exams is signaling a summer break for most law students, Delaware Law students get the opportunity to stay at school for an additional week for a unique skills-building program that teaches them how to succeed in a courtroom.

Known as the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, or ITAP, the seven-day program, once affectionately likened to a legal “boot camp,” is taught by judges, attorneys and legal academics. They serve as program faculty in a desire to help shape the next generation of American trial lawyers.

Students learn and practice skills such as opening statements, how to use trial exhibits persuasively, how to state objections correctly, and how to do an effective cross-examination. The program culminates with a trial day, where students execute what they’ve learned, by litigating a fictitious case.

Rising 3L Christy Lazarow enrolled in ITAP because she wanted to take advantage of the full range of opportunities to build skills at Delaware Law, even if she expects to need them infrequently practicing matrimonial law in New Jersey – her current career plan.

“I said I want to graduate ‘trial ready,’” Lazarow said. “This has helped to build my confidence in ways I can’t describe.”

“The critique is fantastic,” classmate Chelsea Dearden added. “To be able to do a cross or direct examination and get immediate feedback is so helpful.”

In addition to the rigorous study, simulations and small-group breakout sessions, students also attend the E. John Wherry Distinguished Lecture in Trial Advocacy and Professionalism, a program highlight. This year’s speaker was Zane Memeger, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. His colleague, Charles M. Oberly III, U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, also attended the lecture, and both men mingled with students at a reception following the lecture.

Professor Judith L. Ritter, who coordinates ITAP through her role as director of the school’s Taishoff Advocacy, Technology and Public Service Institute, said not every law student wants to be a trial attorney. But for those who do, or who want to build those skills, ITAP is critical.

“The intensive format of the program makes it a fast-paced, exciting experience unlike any other except, perhaps, the actual practice of law,” Ritter said. “Students finish with an outstanding foundation in trial skills and an appreciation of the rigors of trial practice.”