Boot Camp Formats
Advocacy Club Boot Camp for Junior Litigators
Five Two-Hour Sessions
The Advocacy Club Boot Camp offers junior litigators a unique educational experience. Here, participants learn by doing.
These are the basic skills litigators should master to succeed. Best of all, participants develop a sense of collegiality with their co-participants. This peer-to-peer contact continues well beyond the Boot Camp. If you are interested in this or a future session, contact John Hollander. Cost $250 for students and $370 for lawyers, both plus HST.
The Boot Camp qualifies (for lawyers in Ontario, at least) as 8.5 hours substantive CPD, plus 1.5 hours professional of which 1.0 is EDI. Due to the small size of the participating groups, we cannot offer refunds, so we ask you to pay a week before the first session.
Sessions will run on Zoom until further notice. As a backup, streaming video covering similar content will be available at no extra charge. To sign up, contact John Hollander through the "Contact" page, and pay through the "Store" page. Please provide the name of your firm/organization and your year of Call.
Boot camps are customizable! If your department, organization or firm has four or more litigators who need this kind of training, contact us to discuss your requirements and to receive a fee quotation. For details, see our page on Custom Training here.
The graduates of all Boot Camps become Club Members. These constitute a pool of highly talented litigators. Many of them have gone on to train others in advocacy techniques, both in the Club and at the Bar (CCLA, OBA, AGEFO, uOttawa Law). Several have received recognition for their excellence as advocates, for their community service and some through election to the CCLA Board of Trustees. Some are now partners in their firms and leaders in the legal community.
Read what they say (in anonymous 2021-2022 QA surveys):
As a lawyer in Toronto, I had never heard of the Advocacy Club before. I feel fortunate that I was introduced to the Club and was able to participate in the Advocacy Boot Camp over Zoom. This is an incredible program for lawyers at all stages in their career, and in my opinion should be essential learning. I love how the Boot Camp was participating based and the takeaways were easy to remember and apply to my practice.
I understand why the course is called a boot camp; participants work hard and are challenged! As a junior lawyer, this format worked as it allows me to establish what areas I needed to improve and work on those skills. I am significantly more confident in my advocacy skills after going through this program.
It is one thing to know what evidence you need for your case to succeed, it is another to know how to extract it from a witness in a persuasive manner. The Advocacy Bootcamp excels at teaching trial advocacy skills that lay the foundation for junior lawyers to grow and develop.
The bootcamp makes you get out of your comfort zone and practice in real-time in front of your peers, yet in a safe environment; also good as an advocacy skills refresher.
I highly recommend this Boot Camp to any young lawyer or paralegal before their examinations, cross-examinations or trials. This is not something that I learned in law school and I appreciated the opportunity to get on my feet and learn in a safe environment.
- We begin the Boot Camp with introductory exercises that teach questioning techniques, using whether for use in interviews or in examinations.
- Participants work with witness statements to develop skills to follow up where witnesses lead.
- They learn to analyze the case to develop themes.
- They learn how to create effective outlines for any examination.
- They learn and practice direct and cross-examination techniques.
- For EDI content, the Advocacy Club uses video, discussion and an exercise to present issues in communication to raise awareness of unconscious bias, and how that interferes with understanding, the lifeblood of advocacy.
- The Boot Camp closes with a brief tutorial on the formula for a persuasive closing argument.
These are the basic skills litigators should master to succeed. Best of all, participants develop a sense of collegiality with their co-participants. This peer-to-peer contact continues well beyond the Boot Camp. If you are interested in this or a future session, contact John Hollander. Cost $250 for students and $370 for lawyers, both plus HST.
The Boot Camp qualifies (for lawyers in Ontario, at least) as 8.5 hours substantive CPD, plus 1.5 hours professional of which 1.0 is EDI. Due to the small size of the participating groups, we cannot offer refunds, so we ask you to pay a week before the first session.
Sessions will run on Zoom until further notice. As a backup, streaming video covering similar content will be available at no extra charge. To sign up, contact John Hollander through the "Contact" page, and pay through the "Store" page. Please provide the name of your firm/organization and your year of Call.
Boot camps are customizable! If your department, organization or firm has four or more litigators who need this kind of training, contact us to discuss your requirements and to receive a fee quotation. For details, see our page on Custom Training here.
The graduates of all Boot Camps become Club Members. These constitute a pool of highly talented litigators. Many of them have gone on to train others in advocacy techniques, both in the Club and at the Bar (CCLA, OBA, AGEFO, uOttawa Law). Several have received recognition for their excellence as advocates, for their community service and some through election to the CCLA Board of Trustees. Some are now partners in their firms and leaders in the legal community.
Read what they say (in anonymous 2021-2022 QA surveys):
As a lawyer in Toronto, I had never heard of the Advocacy Club before. I feel fortunate that I was introduced to the Club and was able to participate in the Advocacy Boot Camp over Zoom. This is an incredible program for lawyers at all stages in their career, and in my opinion should be essential learning. I love how the Boot Camp was participating based and the takeaways were easy to remember and apply to my practice.
I understand why the course is called a boot camp; participants work hard and are challenged! As a junior lawyer, this format worked as it allows me to establish what areas I needed to improve and work on those skills. I am significantly more confident in my advocacy skills after going through this program.
It is one thing to know what evidence you need for your case to succeed, it is another to know how to extract it from a witness in a persuasive manner. The Advocacy Bootcamp excels at teaching trial advocacy skills that lay the foundation for junior lawyers to grow and develop.
The bootcamp makes you get out of your comfort zone and practice in real-time in front of your peers, yet in a safe environment; also good as an advocacy skills refresher.
I highly recommend this Boot Camp to any young lawyer or paralegal before their examinations, cross-examinations or trials. This is not something that I learned in law school and I appreciated the opportunity to get on my feet and learn in a safe environment.
Advocacy Club @ Law School - Boot Camp for Law Students - only offered online
Nine x 90-minute Sessions
Students in law schools across Canada can also benefit from the Boot Camp. A mix of plenary sessions to present and demonstrate the techniques and small group breakouts led by Advocacy Club member lawyers. More focused on the correlation between case analysis and execution (how to think of a case and use that thinking in interviews, examinations and argument). Gather the information, figure out what you want to accomplish, then get it done. This program improves the performance of students in all their courses.
Why sign up?
Read what the Fall 2022 class had to say:Several of the 9 eligible AC@LS 1Ls from uOttawa Common Law participated in the prestigious and competitive Nelligan Moot Court Competition. Of these, three made the semi-finals, two made the finals, and one won outright! One of last year's winners, now a 2L, took part in this AC@LS, too. Makes one wonder about cause and effect.
I am sending a big thank you to you for this 'course'. My moot partner and I made it to the semi-finals at the Nelligan Moot Court Competition for 1Ls, and the judges from our final round made a point of finding us and letting us know that they were advocating for us to go to the final. They were very specific in the feedback that our summaries before and after arguments were very well done and allowed the judges to follow our arguments clearly. This came DIRECTLY out of your handbook!
By enrolling in Advocacy Club @ Law School early in the semester, I was used to dedicating time to a non-graded project, AND it was one of my anchors of joy early on in this law school process. My approach to mooting was the same- from a place of learning and fun- and worked for my partner and me.
These building blocks help give some confidence to the idea that litigation is doable and that it is a field I could see myself in. I just wanted to say thanks for the skills, but also thanks for a "fun" law school project that helped remind me early on why I'm doing this. Because I want to.
Miranda Minassian, 1L, uOttawa Common Law, Nelligan Moot Semi-finalist 2022
*****
I just wanted to reach out and thank you for organizing and donating your time to run the advocacy club. Participating in the Advocacy Club Boot Camp @ Law School has been a very informative and worthwhile experience. It allowed me to learn and develop many different techniques and skills about oral advocacy that I have not yet been exposed to in law school.
The structure of the Boot Camp was very conducive to my learning the skills from the show-notes and in plenary, then being able to practice those skills in the breakout rooms. This was a great test to ensure that I was absorbing the material. You, and the other team leads, have been fantastic throughout.
Brendan Lowry, 3L, Queen's
*****
It was such a wonderful few months at the Advocacy Club's advocacy boot camp. Thank you so much to the great leadership and mentorship from John Hollander, Alana Guy, Alice Mihailescu, Dylan Dilks, Grace Tran, J.D., and Matthew Benson. I enjoyed meeting my team leads and colleagues, learning essential advocacy skills, and honing my public speaking through weekly simulations.
I highly recommend any advocacy enthusiasts like me sign up for future boot camps and events. Or, if you are not sure about advocacy yet, this is a safe space to try it out and have fun!
Emma Huang, 3L, uOttawa Common Law
*****
Joining the Advocacy Club was a game-changing decision for my first year of law school. The Club is a safe space to learn and practice trial advocacy and public speaking skills. I also learned more foundational case analysis strategies that have supported my course work, and first place finish in the Nelligan Moot Court Competition. The Club's network has helped me get a sense of possibilities for 1L jobs and beyond, and I took away countless lessons from upper years and young litigators who shared their advice. John and his team have built a community and network that goes beyond what academic classes could ever offer - don't miss out. Join The Advocacy Club!
Ola Mirzoeva, 1L, uOttawa Common Law and Nelligan Moot Co-winner, 2022
Why sign up?
- Learn the methods of case analysis that apply to all areas of law.
- Practice advocacy techniques with feedback in a risk-free setting.
- Establish a network of like-minded students and lawyers.
- Learn a comprehensive approach to advocacy.
- Get a strategic advantage over your non-member peers.
- Gain access to the Advocacy Club as a full member.
- The Boot Camp will take place over two months, with homework (reading, podcasts, exercises).
- For more information and to reserve your space, contact Chelsea Sexton.
- Cost: None.
Read what the Fall 2022 class had to say:Several of the 9 eligible AC@LS 1Ls from uOttawa Common Law participated in the prestigious and competitive Nelligan Moot Court Competition. Of these, three made the semi-finals, two made the finals, and one won outright! One of last year's winners, now a 2L, took part in this AC@LS, too. Makes one wonder about cause and effect.
I am sending a big thank you to you for this 'course'. My moot partner and I made it to the semi-finals at the Nelligan Moot Court Competition for 1Ls, and the judges from our final round made a point of finding us and letting us know that they were advocating for us to go to the final. They were very specific in the feedback that our summaries before and after arguments were very well done and allowed the judges to follow our arguments clearly. This came DIRECTLY out of your handbook!
By enrolling in Advocacy Club @ Law School early in the semester, I was used to dedicating time to a non-graded project, AND it was one of my anchors of joy early on in this law school process. My approach to mooting was the same- from a place of learning and fun- and worked for my partner and me.
These building blocks help give some confidence to the idea that litigation is doable and that it is a field I could see myself in. I just wanted to say thanks for the skills, but also thanks for a "fun" law school project that helped remind me early on why I'm doing this. Because I want to.
Miranda Minassian, 1L, uOttawa Common Law, Nelligan Moot Semi-finalist 2022
*****
I just wanted to reach out and thank you for organizing and donating your time to run the advocacy club. Participating in the Advocacy Club Boot Camp @ Law School has been a very informative and worthwhile experience. It allowed me to learn and develop many different techniques and skills about oral advocacy that I have not yet been exposed to in law school.
The structure of the Boot Camp was very conducive to my learning the skills from the show-notes and in plenary, then being able to practice those skills in the breakout rooms. This was a great test to ensure that I was absorbing the material. You, and the other team leads, have been fantastic throughout.
Brendan Lowry, 3L, Queen's
*****
It was such a wonderful few months at the Advocacy Club's advocacy boot camp. Thank you so much to the great leadership and mentorship from John Hollander, Alana Guy, Alice Mihailescu, Dylan Dilks, Grace Tran, J.D., and Matthew Benson. I enjoyed meeting my team leads and colleagues, learning essential advocacy skills, and honing my public speaking through weekly simulations.
I highly recommend any advocacy enthusiasts like me sign up for future boot camps and events. Or, if you are not sure about advocacy yet, this is a safe space to try it out and have fun!
Emma Huang, 3L, uOttawa Common Law
*****
Joining the Advocacy Club was a game-changing decision for my first year of law school. The Club is a safe space to learn and practice trial advocacy and public speaking skills. I also learned more foundational case analysis strategies that have supported my course work, and first place finish in the Nelligan Moot Court Competition. The Club's network has helped me get a sense of possibilities for 1L jobs and beyond, and I took away countless lessons from upper years and young litigators who shared their advice. John and his team have built a community and network that goes beyond what academic classes could ever offer - don't miss out. Join The Advocacy Club!
Ola Mirzoeva, 1L, uOttawa Common Law and Nelligan Moot Co-winner, 2022