Certified Criminal Trial Attorney

The Certification Process

There are approximately 70,000 licensed attorneys in New Jersey. Of those, only 305 have met the rigorous requirements set up by the New Jersey Supreme Court to become certified as criminal trial attorneys, Mitchell E. Ignatoff is a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney.

There are two steps to becoming certified as a criminal trial attorney. 

• First there is a lengthy application process. 

• Then there is a two day timed examination.

To apply you must show that:

• Your practice is substantially devoted to criminal law. Which means that you must list every case you have been involved in for the last 5 years. 

• You must show at least 10 jury trials through verdict, at which you have represented a client. Of those ten trials, you must receive recommendations from 2 judges, 2 prosecutors, and 2 defense attorneys. 

• You must have a spotless ethics record.

Once the above qualifications have been met, The Board on Trial Attorney Certification, an arm of the New Jersey Supreme Court, then reviews your application. This board is made up of experienced trial attorneys. If their assessment is that you are qualified, they will approve you to sit for the exam.

The exam tests your knowledge of the substantive criminal jaw, evidence, constitutional law, and sentencing. Your are shown video clips, typically of trial situations, and asked to write down what the objection is, what the prosecutor and defense should argue, and how the judge should rule, and why. The test is timed; you only have a certain number of minutes to answer the question.

You either know your stuff, or you don’t. I do. I passed. I am certified.

 

 

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LL.M. in Trial Advocacy

The LL.M, program, a Master of Laws program, is run by Temple University Law School in Philadelphia. It is an intensive, one year program, focusing on all aspects of trial advocacy, including 

• story telling

• evidence

• openings

• direct

• cross

• closings

• jury behavior

• trial strategy

You are taught by some of the leading trial lawyers in the United States, including the lawyer who defends General Motors, the biggest and richest corporation in the world, from multi-million dollar liability suits. There are leading plaintiffs lawyers as well, all of whom have collected multi-million dollar verdicts. There are prosecutors and defense attorneys.

You do many actual trials under their supervision. These trials are videotaped, and critiqued by your classmates and your teachers. You also do presentations to the class, which are also critiqued by your classmates and teachers; you cover all phases of one trial over the school year. From drafting the complaint and answer, to deposition strategy, to settlement negotiations, to trial with a jury. The clear emphasis is to be on your feet, doing it, not merely watching a lecture,

Temple University Law School is ranked number one in the entire nation for trial advocacy by U.S. News and World Report. That is ahead of Harvard, Yale. Stanford, Berkeley and all the other law schools in the country, I went to this program because I wanted to get better at what I do. I am better.

Approximately two hundred lawyers in the entire country have taken this program over the past seven years. I am one of them.