About the Journal

Welcome to the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.  The Journal is dedicated to the art and science of trial advocacy.  Accordingly, the Journal categorizes manuscripts by topic and intended audience: articles, commentaries, and trial or courtroom techniques.  Commentaries allow authors to discuss controversial topics that may be outside the scope of a full-length article.  Articles are thoroughly researched discussions of new theories of law applicable to the trial attorney's practice.  Trial techniques, unique to the Journal, are how-to discussions of proven trial tactics that include supporting case law and other research.  The Journal provides both theoretical analysis of the law as well as analysis of actual litigation practices.

Through the efforts of the late Cumberland Dean Donald E. Corley, the American Journal of Trial Advocacy was founded in 1977.  Dean Corley believed demands were rising throughout the profession for increased study and analysis of trial advocacy as a specialty within the law.  Traditional law reviews have been unable to meet these demands due to their emphasis on a theoretical analysis of the body of the law.  Because of their restrictive formats, ordinary law reviews do not deal with actual litigation practices to any significant degree.

The Journal publishes articles authored by prominent attorneys, judges, and clinical professors throughout the country.   These articles address proven tactics and techniques at the pre-trial, trial, and appellate level.  Student-written notes, comments, and recent developments focus on new developments in the law that most directly affect trial practice and procedure.  The Journal, in its third decade of publication, has tremendous potential for breaking new legal ground, supplying the largest section of the Bar with trial techniques, and gaining a national circulation greater than any other law review in the South.  The circulation of the Journal reaches all fifty states as well as eight foreign countries.

Journal members are selected from a highly competitive candidates program.  Students ranked at the top of their class and select winners of writing and advocacy competitions are offered an opportunity to attempt to write-on to the Journal.  This competitive admittance program ensures a continued high level of quality throughout the Journal’s writing and editing process.