Stetson professors take advocacy training to the Caribbean
Stetson Advocacy is everywhere, and most recently it was the Virgin Islands!
At the end of July, Professors Roberta Flowers and Julia Metts traveled to the Caribbean for hands on Stetson advocacy lectures, demonstrations, and interactive presentations for members of the Virgin Islands Bar Association.
The multi-day training session was actually several years in the making thanks to hurricane delays and other hiccups, but it was well worth the wait, said VIBA President Chivonne Thomas.
“Stetson is a friend of the Virgin Islands Bar Association, and we have fostered a great relationship,” she said. “They truly made the effort to learn about the law in the VI and assist in helping our practitioners manage the ever-changing body of law.”
Customized training was key
Thomas wanted to bring real trial training to the members of her organization. She and her board spent countless hours on conference calls with the team at Stetson to fine tune the training and develop a program that met the unique needs of the VIBA.
“Our primary goals were to provide our practitioners with feedback in real time and to grow the advocacy skills for attorneys of all experience levels, especially our young lawyers,” she said. “Given the shortage of practitioners, our young attorneys are often thrown into the courtroom sooner than their stateside counterparts, and we wanted to give them tools that they could utilize to strengthen their advocacy.”
Metts explained that Stetson Law appreciates every opportunity to train advocates in every place where justice matters and skills are needed. The upshot of all the hard work and planning meant attorneys with no experience joined attorneys with 40+ years’ experience to “learn by doing” and participate in trial skills-based training.
“The results were phenomenal!”
Prof. Julia Metts
Thomas said nearly 60 people attended the seminar, and they are looking forward to further training opportunities with Stetson.
Post date: Sept. 20, 2019
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
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