Many professionals will tell you that studying theory doesn’t compare to doing something for real. That sort of experiential teaching is central to one of Cardozo’s most innovative programs: ITAP, the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program.
ITAP, which runs from January 3 through January 15, teaches students to litigate, requiring them to step out from behind their text books to practice techniques of their trade in front of experts in the field. The hours are long, the work load intense, and the pace unforgiving. There’s a reason it’s called the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. But in the end, students emerge from what is often described as a legal boot camp with practical experience that, according to many students, provides a level of training, and an advantage, that other graduates won’t have in their first jobs.
As one former Cardozo graduate put it after completing ITAP, “This is the first time students get to be lawyers. Don’t underestimate how amazing that can be.”
Over the course of the two-week program, ITAP participants learn the fundamentals of litigation from experienced lawyers and judges. They focus on core skills—such as identifying good and bad facts, submitting items into evidence, delivering opening arguments—that provide a foundation upon which to build a successful career. The program culminates with students putting their training to the test before a judge and jury in a mock trial.
The Intensive Trial Advocacy Program was started 33 years ago by a group of Cardozo Law professors that included noted defense lawyer and founder of Innocence Project Barry Scheck. Since then, the program has expanded and evolved to include a mix of civil and criminal case studies, a negotiating session, and brainstorming sessions.
Today, more than 200 lawyers and judges from all over the country are active in Cardozo’s ITAP program, making it one of the most robust programs in trial practice anywhere. This year, 90 will come to Cardozo to teach the course. They critique the students during class sessions, and also provide one-on-one feedback while reviewing video tapes of their performances.
Students have described the first day of ITAP as nerve wracking, but they soon find themselves immersed in the work, striving to take advantage of what many consider a unique opportunity to learn directly from the pros. That’s ITAP’s goal—learning through doing, and then taking those skills when entering a career.