WSU Professor Robert Molko
I was a prosecutor in Orange County for 32 years. I tried over 160 jury trials, 35 homicide cases, bounty cases, drug cases, burglary cases, sexual assault cases. I’ve seen all kinds of issues.
I not only run the externship program, but I also have taught trial practice where I go through the process with them of what it’s like to put on a trial. I’ll be teaching an Evidence Practice class where they actually have to stand up and argue the issues that they would in real life in front of a judge. I’ll play the role of a judge and they’ll have to argue their positions legally one against the other as an adversarial position.
What I do is I work with the students not only in placing them, but I spend two hours a week with them in a seminar, dealing with the practical issues, dealing with criminal law. What it is like to be in real life as opposed to just academia.
When I taught Trial Practice, it took place here in the moot court room because this is really in some ways better than a real courtroom.
But whether I teach Trial Practice or Evidence Practice, I will be sitting at the bench, acting as the judge. The students, the lawyer advocates as they would be, would have to stand up at the podium just like we’re in a regular courtroom and argue their position one at a time. The judge would make comments or ask them to follow up until I, as a judge would make a ruling. So it really conveys to them the real life experience that they will face when they do go in front of a judge. I try not to be as tough as some of the judges, but I do push the students so that they’re forced to think on their feet, as the expression goes.
It makes a world of difference. Once you become a lawyer, you pass the bar, when you walk in a courtroom and feel like you have been there. You have the experience. It takes away a big edge off that nervousness that exists with every trial lawyer. The familiarity with the proceedings, familiarity with the surroundings, the process, which would terrify a student who would first come in without any prior experience.
Just a few weeks ago we had some potential admittees that came here and visited us. We spoke in this very courtroom. One of the students who spoke, besides faculty, was one of my students that I had a year ago who did point out to the admittees that the classes he had from me, the Trial Practice class, was the best class that he ever had in law school. It prepared him for what he’s doing right now. I’ve heard that from another one of my students who actually was able to get a job in a prosecutor’s office based on the experience he had here. The interesting thing about that person is that when he first came to my Trial Practice class, he first stated that he didn’t want to be a trial lawyer. He was just taking the class to find out what it was like. And he just didn’t want to do that. It’s amazing. He’s now a prosecutor in Los Angeles County. He did real well in the class, had the talent that emerged in the class that I pointed out and was able to bring it out and actually improve it, or use it better, I should say.
Think about the very special thing that Western offers, and that is prepare you for real life situations in the legal world, not just prepare you for the academia, not just for passing the bar exam, but for really being able to handle yourself in the courtroom. Which is what you’ll have to be if you’re going to be a trial lawyer.