Civility

Executive Director Erika Harold Part of Teaching Faculty for Harvard Law School’s Winter Trial Advocacy Workshop

harvard law school trial advocacy workshop erika harold

Last week, Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism Executive Director Erika Harold returned to her alma mater, Harvard Law School, as part of the teaching faculty of the Winter Trial Advocacy Workshop. This is the sixth year that Harold has taught as part of the Trial Advocacy Workshop.

The Trial Advocacy Workshop is an intensive course in trial analysis, skills, and techniques taught over three weeks. Harold taught during the second week, which focused on bench trials.

“We are delighted that Erika joined the teaching faculty of our Trial Advocacy Workshop again this year,” said Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Director of the Trial Advocacy Workshop and the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and a Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law. “Erika draws on her experience as a litigator to provide constructive and encouraging insight and guidance to our students.”

Erika Harold in front of the Harvard Law School Law Library
Erika Harold in front of a library where she spent time as a Harvard Law School student

The Trial Advocacy Workshop focuses on a trial lawyer’s task of creating a precise fact picture that reflects the lawyer’s version of the case in the consciousness of fact-finders.

This includes simulated exercises on all aspects of in-court trial practice including opening statements, development of witness testimony on direct and cross-examination, and use of illustrative aids and exhibits in evidence, impeachment, and summations.

Importantly, the Trial Advocacy Workshop provides on-the-spot evaluation and critique of simulated trials by experienced trial lawyers and judges who teach as volunteers.

“It is such an honor to be invited to return to my alma mater, Harvard Law School, as part of the teaching faculty for the Trial Advocacy Workshop,” Harold said. “It is an incredible opportunity to help advise brilliant law students and learn from some of the most accomplished lawyers, judges, and professors in the nation. I am grateful to Harvard Law School and Professor Sullivan for this experience and look forward to bringing what I have learned back to the lawyers and law students of Illinois.”

Harold was appointed as Executive Director of the Commission on Professionalism in 2022. Prior to joining the Commission, Harold was a commercial and civil litigation attorney at Meyer Capel, P.C. in Champaign, Illinois, and a litigation attorney at the Chicago offices of Sidley Austin LLP and Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.

She graduated from Harvard Law School in 2007, where she won a Boykin C. Wright Memorial Award for appellate advocacy in Harvard Law School’s prestigious Ames Moot Court Competition.

About the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism

The Illinois Supreme Court established the Commission on Professionalism under Supreme Court Rule 799 to promote integrity, professionalism, and civility among the lawyers and judges of Illinois, to foster a commitment to the elimination of bias and divisiveness within the legal and judicial systems, and to ensure those systems provide equitable, effective, and efficient resolution of problems for the people of Illinois.

The Commission achieves this mission through professional responsibility CLE, lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring, legal professionalism programming, educational resources, and more. To learn more, visit 2Civility.org and follow us on Twitter @2CivilityOrg.

Press Contact

Laura Bagby, Communications Director
312-363-6209
laura.bagby@2civility.org

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