What I Learned From Teaching Trial Advocacy: The Closing Argument

 In his fifth and final article in his five-part Illinois Bar Journal series on trial advocacy, Gino L. DiVito focuses on the losing argument, which he says possess a unique status within trial advocacy. In his article, “What I Learned From Teaching Trial Advocacy: The Closing Argument,” published in the IBJ’s February issue, DiVito writes, closing arguments “occupy the climactic arguments in books, plays, movies, stories, and real trials. But persuasion does not magically occur based on the power of closing arguments. If you haven’t done the job of persuasion from the opening gun—if, during the other parts of trial, jurors haven’t accompanied you on the road toward victory—persuasion is unlikely to result from your closing arguments. … Nonetheless, closing arguments deservedly earn the mystique they generate.”

 Read the February IBJ article, "What I Learned From Teaching Trial Advocacy: The Closing Argument."