Trial Advocacy Competence: The Judicial Perspective

The competence of attorneys, and more particularly the competence of trial lawyers, is currently an issue of considerable controversy both within the judiciary and within the legal profession itself. This article addresses the issue of attorneys' courtroom performance as observed by judges. Drawing on data from a survey administered to state and federal judges sitting in trial courts of general jurisdiction, this article explores the relationship of demographic and judicial characteristics to various judicial evaluations of advocacy competence. While it provides important insights into the present state of trial advocacy competence, it also constitutes a systematic examination of the judiciary's perceptions of the trial bar.