Winning Advocacy Skills Workshop 2025

Learning level: Intermediate

Have you ever wanted to receive honest, personalized feedback from senior counsel and judges to take your advocacy skills to the next level? This is your chance to practice on your feet in a real courtroom.

Unlike any other course offered at CLEBC, senior colleagues of the bench and the bar will provide you with the ultimate mentoring experience by helping you elevate your advocacy skills in a relaxed, safe environment in this two-day workshop. Within a practical and hands-on framework, refine your skills and learn how to influence the people who matter at trial with this rare chance to experiment and make mistakes without cost to your client or reputation. 

Over the course of two days, you will:

• work through a civil mixed with criminal trial fact pattern and case materials by completing advocacy performance exercises in a small group led by a senior litigator team leader
• experience the intellectual, ethical, emotional, and physical demands of trial by performing multiple and repeated direct examination, cross-examination, opening, and closing exercises in a mock courtroom setting
• receive real-time critique regarding each of your performance exercises from team leaders and guest instructors
• have a lifetime opportunity to be video-recorded for two of your performance exercises
• receive individual attention and personalized, constructive feedback during one-on-one sessions with a senior member of the bench or bar who will review your video-recorded performances together with you
• watch live demonstrations of proper trial advocacy skills performed by experienced faculty  
• act as a witness for other student performances to understand the witness experience at trial
• have the opportunity to understand the perspective from the bench
• dramatically improve your craft in a short time! 

Past participants say:

"Fantastic. I was very impressed with both the amount of time senior members of the bar and bench dedicated to the course and to providing individual attention and constructive feedback. I improved and developed my skills and I left feeling far more confident about my abilities as a litigator."

"Excellent! As a 'hands-on learner,' I take away so much from doing and seeing rather than just listening. This was the perfect environment to experiment and try new things."

"There are things you'll learn in this course that even 10 years of trial experience won't give you."

Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 15 hours (this course will contain a minimum of 2 hours pertaining to professional responsibility and ethics, client care and relations, and/or practice management)

Course Chairs
The Honourable Justice Catherine A. Murray — Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
Andrew I. Nathanson, KC — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

CLEBC Program Lawyer*
Genevieve Chang
gchang@cle.bc.ca
*non-practising