Building Trial Skills: Midwest

As a participant in Building Trial Skills you will use NITA’s learning-by-doing method to practice and perfect your skills in the challenging arts of trial advocacy and persuasion. In a simulated trial setting you will be performing:

Opening statements and closing arguments
Impeachment
Direct & cross examinations
Voir Dire

Following your live and videotaped performances you will be given feedback and critique from the renowned NITA faculty. There will be a bench trial in the middle of the week and to conclude the program you will conduct a full jury trial, then have a chance to ask the jurors questions and hear their feedback.  Participants will be able to choose a criminal or civil case file for their performances and trial.

Whether you are a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, Building Trial Skills will change the way you approach trials, improving your performance exponentially.

*Qualifies as one credit toward the NITA Advocate Designation.

• Megan Melich
  NITA
  Shipping Contact
  Boulder, CO

• Neil Peters
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Craig Burgess
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Steve Bailey
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Jonathan Jorgensen
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Bernard Fritz
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Donald Laccobazzi
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Todd Soong
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• James Warner
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Jay VandeBerg
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Suzanne Smyth
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Gerard Crimmins
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Ken Foszcz
  
  Expert Witness
  , IL

• Paul Niles
  
  Expert Witness
  Bolingbrook, IL

• James Carey
  Loyola Univ School of Law
  Program Director
  Chicago, IL

  
  Carey, James P.

  James P. Carey is professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. He has taught and is widely published in the areas of evidence, criminal procedure, trials, depositions, and judicial administration. A sought-after legal expert and speaker, Professor Carey has presented lectures at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, and the IICLE. Carey serves as a faculty member and team leader for several NITA programs, including the National Session held annually in Boulder, Colorado. Most recently he has been conducting trial practice and deposition training programs for NITA's In-House Training Programs.

  Contact Information:
  jcarey@luc.edu

• William Elward
  Attorney General's Office
  Team Leader
  Chicago, IL

  
  
  WILLIAM X. ELWARD
  
  Bill Elward is an Assistant Illinois Attorney General in Chicago where he is lead counsel on complex prosecutions ranging from commercial fraud and internet crime cases to first degree murders.  Similar to complex commercial practice, Bill's cases involve extensive pretrial discovery, depositions and experts; however, the vast majority of his cases end up in trial, which has given him the opportunity to try over 100 jury trials to verdict.  Bill is an adjunct professor at Loyola University of Chicago Law School where he teaches Evidence, Advanced Evidence, and Trial Advocacy.  In 2008 he received the Robert Bellarmine Award for Outstanding Law School Alumnus.  Elward also teaches Trial Advocacy at the University of Chicago School of Law each year, and has taught trial advocacy at numerous law schools. 
   
  Bill teaches deposition practice and trial skills nationally and internationally.  In addition to his law school teaching, Bill supervises deposition training state-wide for the Illinois Attorney General’s office and he teaches frequently for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA).  In addition to teaching several deposition and trial programs each year for private law firms throughout the United States, the Irish Department of Public Prosecutions has twice invited Bill to teach trial skills in Dublin, Ireland.  Elward also taught evidence and criminal procedure at the Alberto Hurtado University Law School in Santiago, Chile, and taught comparative criminal procedure in Rome, Italy.  Elward routinely receives the highest evaluations in both his law school classes and in NITA programs.  In 2010 Elward was recognized by the Illinois State Appellate Prosecutor’s Office for Outstanding Instruction in Depositions and Trial Skills. Since 2005 Bill has also taught evidence, criminal law and bar exam preparation for Bar-Bri.  Elward is a cum laude graduate of Loyola University of Chicago Law School where he was the Research Editor on the Consumer Law Reporter.

   

• Robert VanderLaan
  VanderLaan and Associates PLC
  Team Leader
  Grand Rapids, MI

  
  Robert D. VanderLaan
  
  B.A., cum laude, University of Detroit
  J.D., University of Detroit

  Mr. VanderLaan is the principal in the AV rated trial practice firm of VanderLaan and Associates, P.L.C.  He is nationally recognized in the concentration of courtroom litigation and alternative dispute resolution.  Prior to entering the practice of law, Mr. VanderLaan enjoyed a twelve-month law clerkship with the United States Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Michigan under the tutelage of then-United States Attorney Ralph Guy, in which Mr. VanderLaan was substantially involved in the grand jury investigation into the disappearance of James Hoffa and the office implementation of the Speedy Trial Act.  He has served as trial counsel in numerous jury trials and bench trials in many jurisdictions throughout the United States.  In August, 1994, at the invitation of the New Zealand Law Society, Mr. VanderLaan joined the faculty of that country's Trial Techniques Program in the cities of Wellington and Dunedin.  Since 1982, Mr. VanderLaan has frequently appeared as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy's (N.I.T.A.) many regional programs including the Midwest Regional and the Southern Regional.  Other faculty appointments include the Chair for the Hillman Advocacy Program and a visiting faculty appointment to the Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques at Emory University Law School.  He was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1981. 

• Zelda Harris
  Univ of Arizona College of Law
  Team Leader
  Tucson, AZ

  
  
  Zelda Harris
  
  B.S., Syracuse University
  J.D., Washington University School of Law

  Zelda Harris has been a member of the law faculty at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona since 1998. She teaches and directs the Domestic Violence Law Clinic. The Clinic is a teaching law office providing training to senior law and masters of social work students and legal representation to victims of family violence in the Tucson community. Prof. Harris also teaches a separate seminar on domestic violence theory and professional responsibility for family law attorneys.

  Prior to her employ at the University of Arizona, Prof. Harris was a senior instructor for the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law.  Ms. Harris and her students provided legal representation to parents involved in child abuse, neglect and dependency cases in a reform effort at the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, Illinois. Prof. Harris began her legal career as a staff attorney for Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. in Alton, Illinois.

  Prof. Harris serves as a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). She has provided advocacy training and leadership to young attorneys nationally and internationally. Further, Ms. Harris has held several positions for national, state and local organizations dedicated to addressing the needs of families plagued by violence.

  Prof. Harris was on leave from the University of Arizona from 2005 through 2007. During her leave she served as a Visiting Professor at Villanova University School of Law as Director of the Civil Justice Clinic. In addition, Prof. Harris visited Loyola University, Chicago School of Law where she taught Civil Procedure and Evidence. 

• Michael Washington
  Office of the Public Defender
  Asst Team Leader
  Vista, CA

  Michael Washington
  
  B.A in Accounting, San Diego State University 
  J.D., California Western School of Law
  
  Michael has taught the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s basic and advanced trial skills and deposition programs since 1998 and has been a Team Leader at NITA’s National Session in Louisville, CO., the Pacific, Southern California regional’s, and the PowerPoint for Litigators program.  Michael has also been a faculty member at the Western, Southwestern and Mid-Western regionals, Teacher Training in San Francisco, and numerous in-house programs for civil litigation, child advocacy, public service and insurance defense firms.  The past two years, Michael has been a co-presenter of NITA sponsored Closing Argument and Trial Skills seminars for the National Bar Association.
  
  Michael Washington is a senior felony trial attorney with the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office.  He is a member of the training committee and is involved with minority recruitment.  His current caseload includes all types of felony crimes including capital murder cases, and he conducts 2-4 felony jury trials a year. In addition to his work at the Public Defender’s office, in 2003 he joined the University Of San Diego School Of Law as an adjunct professor teaching advanced trial advocacy, deposition and negotiation skills.  From 1994 to 2002, he coached the Mock Trial Teams at California Western School of Law.  He was named the Outstanding Public Lawyer by the Bar Association of North San Diego County in 2000.  Michael began teaching at Emory University’s Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques in 2002.  He has frequently been named a Team Leader for that program.
  
  Michael is supported in all of this by his wife, Vanessa, and his three children, Cynthia, Annette and Malcolm.

   

• Robert Blasco
  Hoffman & Blasco LLC
  Asst Team Leader
  Juneau, AK

  Robert Blasco
  
  Robert P. Blasco graduated with honors from the University of Maryland Law School and clerked for the Maryland trial courts. He has practiced law in Alaska since 1977 in all of the Judicial Districts in the Alaska state courts, the Alaska Supreme Court, in the Federal District Court for Alaska, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.

  Before entering private practice in 1988, Mr. Blasco served as a Supervising Attorney for the Alaska Legal Services Corporation, as a State Assistant Public Defender, and as a State Assistant District Attorney.  In these positions, Mr. Blasco conducted class action litigation and many jury trials, including trials as long as eight months.

  Mr. Blasco’s clients and cases involve business and contract concerns and litigation, construction claims and disputes, products liability and personal injury defense, defense of employers, representation and defense of school districts, medical centers and hospitals, and representation of Alaska Native Corporations in state and federal court. Mr. Blasco has served as trial counsel for the state of Alaska in constitutional challenges to state statutes and in the defense of state agencies.

  In addition to his general litigation practice, Mr. Blasco represents many of the small Southeast Alaska municipalities as their Municipal Attorney for municipal matters and in defending the municipalities in litigation.  He has served in that capacity for several of the Alaska municipalities since 1992.

  Mr. Blasco began teaching trial advocacy and deposition programs as a member of the National Faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in 1987.  He has taught on several occasions at the National Trial Advocacy session in Colorado, and on a regular basis in the Midwest trial program and the Los Angeles deposition program.   Mr. Blasco served on the faculty for the Northwest Trial Program and at the Emory University Trial program.  He has taught trial advocacy in New Zealand by invitation.    In addition to trial advocacy and deposition programs, Mr. Blasco has taught NITA programs related to expert witnesses and mediation.

  Mr. Blasco is AV Rated by Martindale- Hubbell and is an elected fellow in the International Society of Barristers.  He lives on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska with his wife, Dolores.  They have four children in various stages from teenagers to grown and gone.  After thirty years in Alaska, he still roots for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

   

• Wendy Muchman
  Illinois ARDC
  Asst Team Leader
  Chicago, IL

  WENDY J. MUCHMAN     

  Wendy Muchman is Chief of Litigation and Professional Education at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois.  She investigates and prosecutes lawyer disciplinary cases, including In re Rinella, 175 Ill.2d 504, 677 N.E.2d 909 (1997).  Ms. Muchman regularly lectures and presents workshops regarding professional responsibility and disciplinary law to various bar association groups, judges and law schools.  Since the fall of 2000, she teaches legal ethics as an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University School of Law, and taught at De Paul University College of Law in fall 2001.  She also serves as a faculty member for National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) both for the trial advocacy and deposition training programs.  She was one of the initial faculty chosen to participate in a pilot NITA trial program for Bar Counsel throughout the country.  She is presently serving as the Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Professional Responsibility.  Prior to 1989 when she started her employment at the Commission, Ms. Muchman litigated in the state and federal courts.  Areas of practice included insurance litigation, civil rights, age discrimination and aviation defense work.  Ms. Muchman received her JD from DePaul University College of Law and her BA from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana.

• Marsha Hunter
  Johnson & Hunter Inc
  Communication Specialist
  Phoenix, AZ

  
  
  Marsha Hunter
  
  Marsha Hunter 
  Legal communication consultant Marsha Hunter teaches persuasion for trial lawyers and public speaking for corporate attorneys. She works exclusively with lawyers. Her specialty is human factors—the science of human performance in high-stakes environments. Hunter’s expertise in cognition and communication focuses on how people think, speak, feel, and act in dynamic situations. Her teaching is both technical and practical, drawing on techniques from sports psychology, linguistics, and cognitive science.

  
   Three times each year, Hunter is the program director for The Articulate Advocate: Becoming More Fluent on Your Feet, a two-day intensive courtroom communication skills program, at NITA’s National Education Center in Boulder, Colorado. In the summer of 2011, as they have for 23 years, she and Brian K. Johnson kicked off NITA's National Trial Skills 40th Anniversary Session with a communication lecture. Ms. Hunter is the communication specialist for NITA's collaborative programs with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Violence Against Women, and at three regional trial skills programs annually for NITA. She teaches for the Department of Justice at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Last year she served on preparation teams for lawyers appearing in multiple cases before the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has taught advocacy programs for the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and in 2012 teaches for the Tasmanian Law Society.

  
   Hunter is the co-author with Brian K. Johnson of The Articulate Advocate: New Techniques of Persuasion for Trial Lawyers, published in 2009. It won a Best Business Book Glyph Award from the Arizona Book Publishers Association, and won a 2010 silver award at the Benjamin Franklin Awards at Book Expo America in New York City. Their second book is The Articulate Attorney: Public Speaking for Corporate Lawyers. Both are available for e-readers and in Spanish.
   Marsha Hunter has a Master’s of Aeronautical Science degree with a specialty in Human Factors from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and holds a commercial pilot’s license. Her undergraduate degree in Music Performance is from Arizona State University. She attended The Curtis Institute of Music, an all-scholarship international school of music in Philadelphia. She lives in Phoenix.

   

• Terry Ray
  Attorney at Law
  Faculty
  Desoto, TX

• Preston Pugh
  Pugh Jones et al
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

  
  Preston L. Pugh
  
  J.D., New York University School of Law
  
  Mr. Pugh's practice combines his expertise in employment and labor law, along with pre-trial litigation, trials and appeals. He has tried in United States District Court in Chicago, and has argued in various United States Courts of Appeals. Mr. Pugh was an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board's Appellate Court Branch, where he had first chair responsibility for some of the Board's most important appellate cases. 
  
  Mr. Pugh was also an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago, where he worked in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office defending federal employers against Title VII, ADEA, Rehabilitation Act and FMLA claims. For his work at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Pugh was one of a handful of attorneys selected by the Department of Justice to instruct attorneys at the National Advocacy Center on employment law trial advocacy.
  
  Mr. Pugh is the Vice-Chair (Chair-elect) of the Chicago Bar Association's Committee on Labor and Employment Law, and an advisor to the New York University Center for Labor and Employment Law. He serves as a member of the Character and Fitness Committee for the State of Illinois. Mr. Pugh is admitted to practice in the State of Illinois; the United States Supreme Court; the United States Court of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and District of Columbia Circuits; and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He is an Instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s National Program and was an Adjunct Professor for Appellate Advocacy and Advanced Appellate Advocacy at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
   

• Thomas Lynch
  Faegre Baker Daniels LLP
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Paula Morency
  Schiff Hardin LLP
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Carl Ossmann
  KS Dept of Social & Rehab Svcs
  Faculty
  Topeka, KS

  

• Lela Johnson
  US Attorney's Office
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Thomas O'Brien
  Miller Canfield et al
  Faculty
  Ann Arbor, MI

• Daniel Kotin
  Corboy & Demetrio PC
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Daniel Rabinovitz
  Michaels Ward & Rabinovitz LLP
  Faculty
  Boston, MA

  

  Dan Rabinovitz
  
  After spending the first seven years of his legal career as a prosecutor in Chicago, Illinois with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Dan Rabinovitz returned home to Boston in 1997 to focus his practice on complex civil business litigation, family and probate litigation, the defense of criminal matters, both at the state and federal level and securities litigation.
  
  Mr. Rabinovitz has tried hundreds of cases, and regularly represents individuals and corporations in a wide variety of complex business litigation. This includes intellectual property disputes, trade secrets and trade dress infringement claims; employment discrimination and restrictive covenant disputes, breach of contract claims and commercial litigation.
  
  Mr. Rabinovitz also represents individuals before the United States Department of Justice, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers, FINRA and other state securities regulatory agencies, including those in Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois.
  
  As an instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (“NITA”), Mr. Rabinovitz regularly teaches young lawyers how to conduct all aspects of civil and criminal trials. He was also named a "Massachusetts Super Lawyer" in 2006 and 2007 by Law and Politics and Boston Magazine, and a "New England Super Lawyer" in 2007.
  
  Mr. Rabinovitz also represents musical artists in various contract disputes and the pursuit of unpaid royalties. As a part-time professional trumpet player, who has worked for artists such as Solomon Burke, Son Seals, Luther Johnson and Sleepy LaBeef, he brings a special knowledge of the music industry to the firm.
  
  Mr. Rabinovitz earned his B.A. from Union College in 1987 and his J.D. from Boston University in 1990. After his stint prosecuting violent crimes, Mr. Rabinovitz practiced in Boston with Abrams, Roberts, Klickstein & Levy; Dwyer & Collora, and Menard, Murphy & Walsh before joining Michaels, Ward & Rabinovitz, LLP in 2006.

   

• Paul Kerpan
  Clausen Miller PC
  Faculty
  Lagrange, IL

  Paul D. Kerpan
  
  J.D., John Marshall Law School, 1978
  B.A., Western Illinois University, 1972

  Paul D. Kerpan is an attorney with Clausen Miller P.C. who concentrates his practice in the areas of plaintiff subrogation and casualty defense. A former clerk for Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Dooley, Mr. Kerpan has extensive trial experience from his tenure with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. He also spent five years representing plaintiffs in major personal injury litigation. He has tried cases in jurisdictions throughout the country.

  Mr. Kerpan earned his B.A. from Western Illinois University in 1972. He graduated from The John Marshall Law School in 1978. While at John Marshall, he was an editor for the John Marshall Law Review. Mr. Kerpan received an M.B.A. from Loyola University of Chicago in 1985. Mr. Kerpan is also a faculty member for the National Institute For Trial Advocacy (NITA). He has been invited to teach at the NITA Midwest Regional Building Trial Skills program for the past eight years. He also is on the faculty for NITA's Deposition skills program.
  M.B.A. Loyola University, Chicago, 1985

• Glenn Bradford
  Glenn E Bradford & Assoc
  Faculty
  Kansa City, MO

• Debra Seaton
  Cook Cnty Public Def Ofc
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Giel Stein
  Social Security Administration
  Faculty
  Chicaco, IL

• John Darrah
  7th US Circuit Court
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Mark Drummond
  8th Judicial Crct of Illinois
  Faculty
  Quincy, IL

  Mark Drummond
  
  A trial lawyer for 20 years before taking the bench as a trial judge, Mark Drummond is one of the highest rated NITA instructors by in-house program participants.  A NITA instructor since 1986, he also teaches others how to be NITA instructors at all three NITA teacher training sites.

  Mark was selected by the prosecutor’s office of the United Nation’s War Crimes Tribunal to train prosecutors at The Hague and in Arusha, Tanzania.  He regularly teaches barristers at Oxford and has been asked by the Federated Bar Association of Japan to teach advocacy skills to attorneys in anticipation of their judicial reform in 2009.

  He is the author of “The Eight Keys to the Art of Persuasion”, a one-day trial advocacy program and has done numerous training videos for NITA.  He writes an advocacy column for litigation News, a publication of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association.

  Sample Comments from in-house participants and other NITA instructors:
  “Perhaps the best NITA teacher I have seen in 20 years of teaching NITA.”
  “Mark Drummond was easily the most effective instructor I have ever seen.”
  “I would come listen to him anywhere, anytime.”
  “Fantastic!  When I grow up I want to be a female Mark Drummond.”
  “The gem of the program.  Mark Drummond was a star.”

   

• Jonathan Barnard
  Illinois State Attys Ofc
  Faculty
  Quincy, IL

• Frank Astrella
  Will Cnty Public Defender's Ofc
  Faculty
  Joliet, IL

• Lynette Hoag
  Hoag Law Group
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

  

  Lynette Simmons Hoag
  Hoag Law Group, LLC
  3727 N. Kedzie Avenue
  Chicago, IL 60618
  (312) 878-7000 phone
  (312) 878-7001 (fax)
  http://www.insurance-claim-attorneys.com/

  Lynette Simmons Hoag is the owner and founding partner of Hoag Law Group, LLC.  The practice has a focus in personal injury and disputed insurance claims.  She has been an Illinois Trial attorney for 18 years and has tried nearly 30 cases to verdict in cook and the surrounding counties.  
  She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.
  Ms. Hoag began her career at a moderate sized law firm in Chicago specializing in the defense of product-liability, nursing home, premises liability and personal injury cases. She then moved to a large firm where she pursued landlords in matters where children had sustained lead poisoning from their premises. Ms. Hoag also spent time representing health care providers with disputed Medicare claims before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board.
  For more than ten years she was a partner at a small Chicago firm where she worked in hard fought insurance defense claims including suspected arson cases, insurance coverage claims, suspicious theft losses, and disputed car accidents. She has conducted hundreds of depositions and dozens of examinations under oath.
  Ms. Hoag has acted as an instructor to fire fighters seeking to become Certified Fire Investigators (“CFI”) for both the International Association of Arson Investigators (“IAAI”) and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy ("NITA"). She has been a NITA Faculty member since 2005. 

• Charles Atwell
  Jackson County Circuit Court
  Faculty
  Kansas City, MO

  Atwell, Charles
  
  Judge Charles E. Atwell was a trial attorney whose emphasis was on criminal defense when he was appointed to the bench in 1996 by Gov. Mel Carnahan. Prior to joining the firm that became Wyrsch Atwell Mirakian Lee and Hobbs, Judge Atwell worked as an assistant Jackson County prosecutor and as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. He received his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1978. Judge Atwell taught high school for several years after graduating from the University of Kansas in 1972 with a degree in secondary education.

• Susan Walker
  Attorney at Law
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

  Susan L. Walker
  
  B.A., University of Illinois
  J.D., University of Chicago School of Law
  
  Susan L. Walker teaches Dispute Resolution and Commercial Arbitration as an Adjunct Professor at DePaul’s College of Law and coaches the moot court negotiation and client counseling teams.  She also teaches Introduction to Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University’s School of Law and was a coach for the moot court trial team.  In these courses, she instructs students on dispute resolution theory, process and advocacy.
  
  Ms. Walker has extensive experience teaching in the dispute resolution field for practicing lawyers.  She has taught in the Mediation Training Certificate Program at DePaul’s Center for Dispute Resolution and has taught in the trial and deposition programs for the Nation Institute of Trial Advocacy.
  
  As a practicing attorney for over twenty years, she focused on product and commercial litigation as a partner with the law firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon and as chief of litigation for the Chicago Park District. At the Chicago Park District, she was also involved in business dispute resolution and problem solving as acting Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Administrative Officer.
  
  She has authored and edited publications on arbitration and international business practice. She is a chair certified arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Cook County Mandatory Arbitration program.  Ms. Walker has completed the arbitrator training program with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is member qualified. Ms. Walker attended the University Of Chicago School Of Law.

• H. Rod Heard
  Barnes & Thornburg LLP
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• William Howard
  Freeborn & Peters
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Robin Weaver
  Squire Sanders & Dempsey
  Faculty
  Cleveland, OH

  
  Weaver, Robin
   
  NITA Trustee: 2008-present
  
  Education: University of Michigan, J.D., 1973; The Ohio State University, B.A., 1970 
  
  Present position: Partner, Squire Sanders 
  
  An accomplished trial lawyer who focuses his practice exclusively on general civil litigation including complex commercial, environmental and product liability litigation, Mr. Weaver has represented clients in federal and state courts in numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States. His practice has included extensive appellate work in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuits, as well as several state supreme courts and a multitude of state courts of appeal. 
  
  Representative experience:  Representing major oil companies against class action and mass tort environmental claims for property damage and personal injury arising out of closed refineries; Representing several rubber companies in environmental landfill cases involving claims for diminution in property values, medical monitoring and cancer; Representing an aluminum manufacturer in Superfund litigation; Representing a major chemical company in a class action against environmental claims for medical monitoring and property damage arising out of a closed smelter; Prosecuting a trade secrets action for a major British-based chemical manufacturer against a major Taiwan-based manufacturing conglomerate for the theft of sophisticated process technology; Defending a national US-based media company against claims of defamation; Defending a multinational manufacturer of X-ray film in a breach of nationwide distribution contract action; Representing a national medical billing services company in a breach of an asset purchase agreement action brought by a regional billing services company with attendant claims of fraud and misrepresentation; Prosecuting a breach of requirement contract action for an automotive parts manufacturer against an automotive parts supply company; Serving as national counsel for a major international tire manufacturer in defective design and mass tire recall litigation; Defending a major oil company against personal injury, property damage, business interruption and defective design claims evolving out of refinery explosions; Representing a major oil company in aviation fuel contamination cases; Serving as regional counsel on behalf of a major pharmaceutical company in drug recall litigation; Representing a major oil company against multiple claims evolving from alleged exposure of a contractor’s employees to petrochemicals; and Representing a major electrical utility company in nuclear radiation exposure cases arising under the Price-Anderson Amendments Act. 
  
  Organizations/Honors/Awards: Mr. Weaver is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers. He was named Lawyer of the Year by Ohio Lawyers Weekly and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA. He is past president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and is a master commissioner and past chair of the Supreme Court of Ohio Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline. He is a life member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference and the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference. He is also a member of the Defense Research Institute, the Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys and the Cleveland Association of Civil Trial Attorneys and is a master bencher in the John M. Manos Inn of Court. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association.

• Juanita Temple
  US Dept of HHS
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Rene Torrado
  Corboy & Demetrio PC
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Roosevelt Thomas
  Westrate & Thomas
  Faculty
  Dowagiac, MI

  Roosevelt Thomas
  
  Roosevelt Thomas received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Western Michigan University and Law Degree from Notre Dame Law School. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and Michigan and is admitted to the Trial Bar in the United State District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Northern District of Indiana, Western District of Michigan, Eastern District of Wisconsin and the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th and 7th Circuits. Beginning 1977, Mr. Thomas was a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago, where he was involved in many high profile criminal cases and 10 death penalty cases including the Pontiac, Illinois prison riot case which was the largest death penalty case ever in the state of Illinois. In 1995 he returned to his roots in Cass County, Michigan where he enjoys a criminal and civil practice which includes municipal law, condemnations, civil rights, personal injury, family law, probate and estate planning. Mr. Thomas has taught trial practice at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Midwest Regional since 1983, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy National Session in Bolder, Colorado and now Louisville, Colorado where he was a team leader in the 2007 session, the Emory Law School, Kessler-Edison Trial Techniques Program since 1988 and the Hillman Advocacy Program in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan since 1997 where he has been a team leader for the past five years, a member of the Steering Committee for the past three years of which he presently serves as vice-chairman.

   

• J. Cunyon Gordon
  
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

  Cunyon Gordon
  
  J. Cunyon Gordon was of counsel at Eimer Stahl Klevorn & Solberg LLP as of April 2008. She brings a rich and varied legal history. After attending Yale Law School on a Navy scholarship, Cunyon served for six years as a Navy Judge Advocate, practicing before courts martial, the military courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court.
  She came to Chicago in 1988 and joined the firm Jenner & Block, where, in 1991 she became that firm's first black female partner. She came to specialize in construction litigation, products liability, toxic torts and represented such clients as General Dynamics, Wendy's International and Waveland Associates.

  Cunyon joined Elimer Stahl Klevron & Solberg LLP after having taught at fine law schools such as Boston University, Boston College, and the University of Oregon, where her subjects included Evidence, Criminal Procedure and Trial Advocacy. Cunyon is currently in her second year as a member of the ABA's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, and a frequent writer and speaker on issues of professional diversity.  She now describes her position as private practice and counseling small law firms on litigation.

   

• Matthew Farmer
  
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Jon Gray
  Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
  Faculty
  Kansas City, MO

  
  
  Jon R. Gray
  
  B.A., Grinnell College
  J.D., University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
  
  After more than 20 years of serving as a circuit judge in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Missouri, Jon R. Gray joined the Kansas City office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon as a Partner in the General Litigation Division.  He is licensed to practice before the Missouri Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
  In August 2007, Judge Gray will become chair of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association.  He is also active in The Missouri Bar, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and the Jackson County Bar Association.  Judge Gray has served as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in regional and national seminars since 1987 in addition to serving as faculty for the Kessler-Edison Program in Trial Techniques at Emory University School of Law and the Missouri Judicial College.  His reviews and commentaries have appeared in legal and non-legal publications.
  Judge Gray is a 1973 graduate of Grinnell College, where he majored in American Studies, and a 1976 graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.  He is a life member of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Alumni Association and the NAACP.
  Memberships
  Missouri Bar
  Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
  Jackson County Bar Association
  Judicial Council of the National Bar Association – Chair (August 2007)

  Licenses
  Judge Gray is admitted to practice before the Missouri Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

  Education
  1976    J.D., University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law
  1973    B.A., Grinnell College

  Community Involvement
  Judge Gray is active in a wide variety of community endeavors and currently serves on the executive committees of the Truman Medical Centers and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.  His past board affiliations include the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, the Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance, Friends of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and ReStart, Inc., an interfaith program for the homeless.
  He is active in both United Methodist Church and ecumenical affairs, having served as a member of the Missouri United Methodist Foundation, the Missouri West Board of Trustees and the National Council of Churches (USA).  Judge Gray was elected to serve as a delegate to the United Methodist Church’s General and Jurisdictional Conference in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.  He was elected to an eight-year term on the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church in 2004.
  Teaching
  Faculty member, National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

  Faculty member, Kessler-Edison Program in Trial Techniques, Emory University School of Law and the Missouri Judicial College. 

   

• Richard Hutt
  Cook County Public Guardian
  Faculty
  Oak Park, IL

  Richard Hutt
  
  B.A., University of New Mexico
  M.A., Aquinas Institute of Theology
  J.D., John Marshall Law School

  Richard Hutt is the Chief of the Professional Development Division for the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender.  In this position he directs and develops training and continuing education opportunities for the attorneys, investigators , and support staff  He has been an Assistant Public Defender for 21 years working in the Civil Division and the Juvenile Justice  Division.  He was a supervisor in the Juvenile Justice Division for 10 years.  Prior to joining the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender, he was an associate in the firm of Richard J. Brzeczek and Associates, practicing in both State and Federal Courts.

  Richard is an Adjunct Professor at the Loyola University School of Law teaching Trial Advocacy, Criminal Law, and Evidence.  Since 1994 he has been associated with the Civitas Child Law Center at Loyola School of Law  also teaching Trial Advocacy.  He is N.I.T.A certified and has taught  throughout the country.   He teaches Trial Advocacy, and has lectured on Criminal Procedure  at the Diplomado Reforma Procesal Penal (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) in Santiago, Chile.

  He received his B.A. (Latin American Politics) from the University of New Mexico, an M.A. in Theology from the Aquinas Institute of Theology, and his J.D. from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

• Karen Dorff
  City of Chicago Dept of Law
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Robin Spencer
  Schiff Hardin LLP
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Craig Tobin
  Tobin Petkus & Munoz LLC
  Faculty
  Chicago, IL

• Frederick Riesmeyer
  Spradley & Riesmeyer PC
  Faculty
  Kansas City, MO

• Susan Boatright
  Boatright Law Offices
  Faculty
  Indianapolis, IN

• Sharon Lynch
  Loyola Univ School of Law
  Administrative Asst
  Chicago, IL

• BMI v. Minicom, 9th Ed, Trial
• Modern Trial Advocacy, 4th Edition
• Flinders Aluminum v. Mismo Fire Insurance Co., 8th Ed
• State v. Burns, Rev 5th Ed
• State v. Jackson, 3rd Ed
• Federal Rules of Evidence with Objections, 10th Edition

Materials are included in the price of tuition.