Trial Advocacy

About the Book

Overview

Trial Advocacy Before Judges, Jurors, and Arbitrators is a long-form craft manual — the volume the courtroom advocate keeps within reach. Written by three veteran trial lawyers (John Sonsteng, Roger Haydock, and Damien Riehl) and grounded in decades of practice and teaching, the book covers the full arc of a case across judicial, arbitral, and administrative forums. Each of the twelve chapters pairs a thesis statement with the underlying tactics, techniques, and procedures, so a working advocate can locate a specific move and apply it under deadline. The companion AI tool surfaces the same material on demand — citation-aware and grounded in the source pages you are reading.

Chapters

1. The Advocate — advocacy as a humanistic helping profession; the theories, strategies, and skills that guide effective practice across courts, arbitrations, and administrative tribunals.
2. Planning and Preparation — stages of a case, winning case theory, evidence analysis, and the integrated plan that distinguishes prepared advocates from improvising ones.
3. Trial Procedures and Motions — scheduling, decision-maker assignment, courtroom conduct, and the procedural backbone that governs what an advocate may do at every stage.
4. Evidence and Objections — the procedure for opposing inadmissible evidence and improper questions, preserving error for appeal on a good-faith legal basis.
5. Jury Selection — identifying jurors who can reach a fair verdict while educating the panel and introducing case theory under tight time limits.
6. Opening Statement — telling a compelling story, explaining convincing evidence, and shaping the early positions that jurors tend to vote with reliably.
7. Direct Examination — the primary source of evidence; questions that let the witness recreate events so the fact finder can see, feel, hear, and perceive them.
8. Exhibits — combining verbal and visual evidence to make the case understood and remembered, with proper foundation across real, demonstrative, and visual-aid categories.
9. Cross Examination — leading questions that develop supportive evidence and discredit opposing witnesses through impeachment.
10. Experts — qualifying experts, framing scientific and technical opinions, and adapting direct- and cross-examination strategy to specialized testimony.
11. Summation / Final Argument — the culminating opportunity to summarize the factual story and explain why the fact finder should rule for the client.
12. Verdict and Appeal — final jury instructions, deliberations, post-trial motions, awards, and the appellate processes that conclude and preserve a case.

About the Authors

John O. Sonsteng

John O. Sonsteng is a legal educator and reform advocate known for advancing experiential, skills-based legal training.

He co-authored A Legal Education Renaissance, a widely cited work proposing a practical, client-centered model for modern legal education. His scholarship critiques traditional law school methods and emphasizes preparing students for real-world practice. He has also written on teaching methods and evaluation tools for legal education, focusing on improving how law students learn and develop professional skills. Through his writing and teaching, Sonsteng has influenced national conversations on aligning legal education with the needs of practicing lawyers.

Roger Haydock

Roger S. Haydock is a nationally recognized authority in trial advocacy and dispute resolution with decades of experience in teaching and practice.

He has authored or co-authored dozens of books and treatises on litigation, arbitration, mediation, and negotiation. Haydock has served as a mediator in hundreds of cases and has played leadership roles in arbitration organizations and dispute resolution institutes. His work spans courtroom advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, and legal education, making him a prominent figure in shaping modern litigation practice and training. Trial Advocacy carries his long arc as both practitioner and teacher of advocates.

Damien Riehl

Damien Riehl is a lawyer-technologist whose practice spans complex litigation, cybersecurity, and applied AI. He clerked for chief judges, tried federal and state cases, led global digital-forensics teams, and now builds AI-driven legal systems at Clio. He co-authors this book from the working bench.

Admitted in 2002 and coding since 1985, Riehl co-chairs Minnesota’s Connected and Automated Vehicles Council and chairs the MSBA AI Committee, where he advances access-to-justice initiatives. He helped develop SALI’s 18,000+ legal data standards and contributes to FOLIO’s legal ontology. At Clio he integrates AI into large-scale legal datasets. He engages AI ethics work with global Catholic leaders and created the public-domain “All the Music” project. Across teaching, scholarship, and practice, his contribution to Trial Advocacy is the lived-courtroom register — viewed through the lens of an AI builder.