Planning to Win: Effective Preparation

This opening chapter sets the foundations for everything that follows: what it means to be an effective advocate, how persuasion actually works on judges and jurors, and how to plan a case backwards from summation. The authors walk through primacy and recency, the rule of three, image creation, decision-maker values, and the discipline of building a tailored case book before trial begins. A distinctive feature is the integrated treatment of AI-assisted preparation — using LLMs to pressure-test theories, surface evidentiary gaps, and simulate adversaries — woven into traditional doctrine rather than bolted on. Suited as the cornerstone reading for an introductory trial advocacy survey or a clinical course’s first weeks, this chapter equips students with both the mindset and the planning scaffolding they will reuse across every later chapter.