Advocacy Excellence: The Jury Trial

Kathleen Mullin

From the halls of state and federal courthouses, to law school lecture halls and classrooms, to military courts martial, Professor Mullin brings a dogged pursuit of excellence to everything she does. Kathleen M. Mullin is a graduate of Boston University School of Law and began her career in 1992 as a public defender in the City of New York. She quickly earned a reputation as a sharp, aggressive, and relentless trial attorney. After nearly 20 years as a public defender, Ms. Mullin opened the Mullin Law Firm, where she grew her reputation as one of the only high profile female criminal defense lawyers in New York City. Known for her inventive advocacy, Ms. Mullin became a sought-after legal analyst, making dozens of appearances on local and national television, and professor of trial advocacy on adjunct faculty at Seton Hall University School of Law. Over the course of her career, she served as CEO of two legal, non-profit agencies, including one working exclusively on death penalty trials, and has supervised and trained hundreds of attorneys in civil, criminal, and military practice.

As the inaugural Director of the Criminal Justice Program at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, Ms. Mullin created and taught such innovative courses as The Serial Killer Handbook and Restorative Justice Theory. In 2020, she co-authored and published her first law school textbook, Advocacy Excellence: The Jury Trial. She is currently serving as the US Navy Defense Service Organization Highly Qualified Expert for criminal defense practice, where she teaches, trains, and supervises military defense lawyers who are defending sailors, Marines, and Coast Guard members charged with crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Camille Abate

Camille M. Abate has successfully litigated complex cases in numerous state and federal venues including New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Nevada, on both the trial and appellate levels. She regularly consults with attorneys across the U.S. and internationally. She has also been recognized for her exemplary advocacy in proceedings before administrative agencies such as the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board.

Ms. Abate is known for her willingness to take on seemingly unwinnable cases and win them. She began her career in 1983 with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, New York, where she rapidly rose to prominence, winning dozens of hotly contested jury trials. After honing her trial skills, she opened the firm of Abate & Preuss, where she stood out as one of the few female named partners who actively tried cases to juries. In her first federal jury trial months after opening her private practice, she won a complete acquittal against the Bureau Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime Control Bureau in the Southern District of New York.

Camille M. Abate is also an extraordinary teacher of trial advocacy. In addition to teaching Trial Advocacy and the Advanced Criminal Practice Seminar at Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Abate runs the Foundation for Excellence in Trial Advocacy, an ongoing training and consulting entity established to assist both practicing trial lawyers and law firm associates to hone their trial skills. She has just written an innovative trial advocacy textbook entitled Advocacy Excellence: The Jury Trial, released in February 2020 by Wolters Kluwer, that includes not just standard trial skills but the latest 21st century advances in litigation, specifically the rise of social media and texting and their impact on e-discovery and proof at trial, making this book is a must for practicing trial lawyers as well as students.