Advocacy Lessons from the Past

• Author: Sheila R Block
• Pages: 229-242

229

chapter eight

Advocacy Lessons from the Past*

shEilA r bloCK

A. ADVOCACY STYLES ON CROSS

In preparing the 2010 Advocates’ Society Charles L Dubin Lecture

on Advocacy, I had the good fortune to read a fair bit of advice

on advocacy from the legendary lawyers of Charles Dubin’s day.

There were both lessons in the art of advocacy and cautionary

tales for practitioners today. Lawyers like Dubin, John Robinette,

Arthur Martin, Arthur Maloney, and John Arnup were frequently

in court and had more opportunity than many of us enjoy today

to learn by doing.

Dubin was known to be good at all the advocacy skills, both

trial and appellate. I am certain this is because he insisted on hav-

ing such a clear analysis of his case theory. He made choices. They

were not always the right ones, but more often than not he was

able to persuade the court that his view was the only credible route

to judgment. Cross-examination was said to be one of his long

suits. So identied was he with this skill that people today who

never saw him in action will cite his prowess as a cross-examiner.1

* A version of this article was published in (Autumn 2011) 30:2 Advocates’ Journal 12.

1 See John McLeish, “Cross-examining the Opposing Expert” (2009) 28:3 Advo-

cates’ Journal 7 at 9.