Evidence: Skills, Strategies, and Assignments for Pretrial and Trial

Marilyn J. Berger

Marilyn Berger founded the Films for Justice Institute at the Seattle University School of Law in 1995. As a Professor at the Law School, she produced, wrote and directed educational documentaries with social justice themes. She is now Professor Emeritus.

She directed the three-film series Lessons from Woburn, a documentary chronicling the Anderson v. W.R. Grace lawsuit, which was inspired by the book and film A Civil Action.

She is the Director of the Trial Advocacy Program at the Law School. Professor Berger is the co-author with Professor John Mitchell and Ronald Clark, Distinguished Practioner in Residence at Seattle University of four advocacy textbooks, published by Wolters Kluwer—Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis and Strategy, (4th Ed. 2015); Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis and Strategy, (4th Ed. 2013); Trial Advocacy: Assignments and Case Files (2nd edition, 2011; and Evidence Advocacy: Assignments and Case Files. http://www.aspenadvocacybooks.com Three films on DVD accompany the advocacy books supplementing the texts.

Professor Berger lectures and writes in the areas of gender, film and the law, and advocacy, exploring issues about the relationship of storytelling and its intersection with law. A recent publication, Opening and closing argument, with co-author Ronald Clark, was published by BNA, 2014.

She is the co-director, writer, and executive producer of Out of the Ashes: 9/11. www.outoftheashes911.com a documentary, about 9/11 families and their experiences with the Victim a Compensation Fund and litigation. The Victim Compensation Fund distributed seven billion dollars to over 5,500 families. Out of the Ashes: 9/11 highlights the stories of seven families and provides an unprecedented window into the psychology of harm and justice. The documentary explores key legal and societal issues? Did the Fund undermine our legal system, or did it offer 9-11 families justice by avoiding lawsuits?

Professor Berger has a B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She was a Visiting Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri (1995, 1998); Kyoto University, (1988 – 1989); Kyoto Comparative Law Center, Kyoto, Japan (1988-1989); University of London, Kings College (1982).

Ronald H. Clark

Professor Clark is a nationally known lecturer and author. He is the Principal of Prosecution Services, LLC, which provides continuing legal education and publications. He has lectured at over 40 national courses and for numerous state associations. He has been awarded both the Distinguished Faculty Award and a Lecturer of Merit Award by the National College of District Attorneys as well as the Dean’s Award of Honor. The Washington Association Prosecuting Attorneys awarded him the President’s Award of Merit.

Professor Clark has written several books, including co-authoring two books with Seattle University Professors Marilyn Berger and John Mitchell, Pretrial Advocacy and Trial Advocacy, published by Aspen. He also wrote Making and Meeting Objections (Evidence Handbook for Washington Trial Lawyers). He served as the Chief Author for the Criminal Trial Practice and Techniques Chapter of the Washington Practice Manual.

Monique Leahy

Monique Leahy is nationally recognized as a premier authority on medical law and personal injury litigation, internet evidence, employment and workers’ compensation issues, and state-specific civil litigation in her over 90 published works. She is the Principal of Wordsworth Law Publications, Inc., which publishes Medical LawPerspectives a monthly e-pub law report. She co-authored the 2nd edition of Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, analysis and Strategy (2 Ed. 2007).
Ms. Leahy is an attorney licensed in Washington, Missouri, and Kansas. While in private practice, her focus was litigation, corporate transactions, and telecommunications law. She is a former managing editor at Lawyers Cooperative Publishing/Research Institute of America, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters; a Director of the Reston Association, a &"new town” planned community with sixty thousand members; and a City Council Member, Planning Commissioner, and Board of Zoning Appeals Member in Leawood Kansas.
Ms. Leahy has a B.A., University of Washington, and a J.D., Seattle University School of Law.

John B. Mitchell

John B. Mitchell‑‑Raised in the Midwest, Professor Mitchell moved to the West Coast to attend Stanford Law School, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board and Editor of the Law Review. He earned his J.D. at Stanford in 1970.

Professor Mitchell’s wide ranging career has included: private practice in his own law firm in San Francisco, where he specialized in criminal litigation (1970-75); consultant to public and private defense attorneys concerning trial, motions and appellate strategies (1973-1981); and Director of Training for a large Seattle law firm (1988-1990) where, while on leave from the law school, he developed a two-year training curriculum for new associates in business and litigation (1988-90).

Professor Mitchell is co-author (with Professor Marilyn Berger and Practitioner in Residence Ronald Clark) of three advocacy textbooks published by Wolters Kluwer: Trial Advocacy: Planning Analysis, and Strategy (4th ed., 2014); Pretrial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy (4th ed., 2014); Evidence: Skills, Strategies, and Assignments for Pretrial and Trial (2012), as well as having published several evidence workbooks. He also has written extensively for professional journals on such topics as professional responsibility, learning and educational theory, training of lawyers, constitutional law, and criminal procedure, besides publishing Assisted Suicide – Nine Issues to Consider (U. Michigan Press, 2007).

Over the past three decades, Professor Mitchell has taught courses in Evidence, Evidence Lab, Advanced Evidence, Expert Witnesses, Criminal Procedure and Advocacy. He also was a member of the Law Practice Clinic for six years, the last two as Director. In 2010, he was named the William C. Oltman Professor of Teaching Excellence.