The LL.M. in Trial Advocacy combines theoretical insights with practical skills, including persuasive storytelling, extemporaneous speaking, and effective use of courtroom technology. With a focus on performance-based learning, the program follows a “learn by doing” approach, providing students with hands-on opportunities to refine their advocacy skills in a real-world context.
Temple Law’s Trial Advocacy program has been consistently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top three trial advocacy programs in the nation for over 20 years. This ranking reflects the program’s commitment to excellence and its long-standing reputation in shaping top-tier advocates.
The LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program attracts students from across the country and the greater Philadelphia area and fosters a dynamic learning environment where lawyers with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and expertise can engage, network, and learn from both faculty and peers. This program is an ideal fit for those who aspire to perfect their litigation tactics, remote advocacy, and courtroom performance.
Curriculum and Schedule
The LL.M. in Trial Advocacy is a one-year, 24-credit degree program. While a full-time program, the LL.M. is designed for practicing attorneys with real-world personal and professional obligations. Classes are scheduled on most of the Wednesday evenings throughout the semester from 6 – 9 PM and may be attended online if the student works/lives more than a one-hour drive from Temple’s main campus. All students must attend the August Bootcamp and scheduled performance weekends on our Philadelphia campus* (see tentative schedule, below).
*Please note that students who require a visa should instead consider applying for the LL.M. for Foreign-Trained Lawyers. Due to the distance learning component, this program does not meet the requirements for a student visa.
2024-2025 Performance Weekend Schedule (subject to change):
| Orientation/Bootcamp | August 3-10, 2024 |
| Depositions/Experts | October 4-6, 2024 |
| Jury Dynamics | November 1-3, 2024 |
| Teaching Advocacy | February 14-16, 2025 |
| Final Jury Trials | April 26-28, 2025 |
Students of this program graduate with an LL.M. degree in Trial Advocacy. Those who have already been barred earn 22 substantive CLE credits and 2 ethics credits.
Application Deadline: May 1, 2025
Advocacy in the Time of COVID-19
Advocacy has always been a performance-based art, at its most powerful live and in-person. But the arrival of COVID-19 has required even the most persuasive advocate to master new media and tools. Attorneys are now grappling with the practical and ethical considerations of remote lawyering and virtual client counseling. Panels en banc now appear as a gallery view on Zoom. And the ubiquitous conference room table, where discovery was brought to bear, has been replaced by a small screen and a GoToMeeting invite. Litigators must now navigate these remarkable changes.
Temple’s LL.M. in Trial Advocacy, the first program of its kind in the nation, is once again leading the way, teaching lawyers how to become master advocates in the time of COVID-19. In addition to the core curriculum noted above, students will become skilled in remote advocacy, including integration of TrialPad and other courtroom technology to virtual meeting platforms, proper authentication and publication of exhibits online, and the “nuts and bolts” of case prep in a world of remote advocacy.
Please contact our office for more information (llmtrial@temple.edu or 215-204-2738).
Scholarships are available for members of the bar working in public interest. Please contact the office to learn more.
Message from the Director
Welcome to Temple’s LL.M. in Trial Advocacy Program. As Director and a member of the LL.M. faculty, I am committed to bringing my extensive real world trial experience to the classroom and courtroom. Our program, developed in 1993, was the first of its kind in the country – designed to help practicing lawyers develop and master the courtroom skills which would otherwise take them a lifetime of trying cases to acquire.
Our LL.M. students are bright, determined, and diverse. They come from a variety of backgrounds, experience levels, and locations. They come from jurisdictions as far from Philadelphia as California, Texas, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico. As such our curriculum is applicable to lawyers practicing anywhere in the United States.
Our LL.M. faculty is composed of attorneys, judges and law professors, recognized throughout the world as legal experts, scholars and accomplished trial lawyers. In addition to our faculty, students learn through their classmates’ breadth of experience which adds a distinctive benefit.
Our community of LL.M. alums enthusiastically agree that the decision to attend Temple’s LL.M. in Trial Advocacy has proven to be one of the most important decisions in their professional lives. I encourage you to make that decision.
Please peruse our website for more information and contact me directly via email or call 215-204-2738 if you have other questions.
Practice Professor Marian G. Braccia
Director of the LL.M. in Trial Advocacy Program
