From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Transactional Oral Advocacy

Abstract

Legal writing courses often teach oral advocacy skills with courtroom-based oral arguments, pitting plaintiff’s counsel against defendant’s counsel. However, oral advocacy skills are important for all lawyers – even those who never set foot in a courtroom. This article discusses how legal writing courses can develop oral advocacy skills by pairing traditional litigation-based oral argument exercises with transactional-based oral advocacy exercises and provides a sample exercise (which has received positive feedback from students) that professors can use to introduce transactional-based oral advocacy skills.