Effective Presentation of Motions

Effective presentation is where doctrine meets craft, and this chapter teaches motion advocacy as a discipline distinct from trial advocacy. It covers motion-practice fundamentals (brevity, clarity, themes), motion advocacy (issue selection, presentation method, factual and legal presentation, and the differences from trial advocacy), brief and memorandum drafting (contents, opposition memoranda, effective writing, redrafting), and oral argument (preparation, presentation, styles, responding to questions, communications skills, tele-arguments) plus post-argument briefs. The chapter is the natural home for a writing-intensive component of a pretrial litigation course and gives professors a complete scaffold for graded brief and oral-argument assignments.