The Trial Advocacy Master Class

LegalMind Academy is a trusted CLE provider known for its expert-led masterclasses on complex legal concepts and evolving regulations. We deliver targeted training that enhances professional growth and hones advanced legal skills. From core principles to niche areas of law, LegalMind helps attorneys broaden their expertise and elevate their practice.

Amy Dallas is an attorney passionate about expanding restorative approaches for addressing conflict and harm instead of traditional overreliance on legal systems. Amy worked as a public defender in Brooklyn, New York for a decade with the Legal Aid Society. Now Amy is beginning a new chapter in her career at the Vera Institute of Justice as a Program Manager in the Reshaping Prosecution initiative where she works with elected prosecutors across the country to end mass incarceration by designing policies to shrink the front end of the criminal legal system by diverting cases toward more restorative options. She advises prosecutor offices in addressing racial disparities and making their offices more accountable to their communities. Before Vera, Amy had supported formerly incarcerated community leaders in the development of a restorative justice nonprofit organization reimagining reentry and anchoring a network of credible messengers. Amy is an alumna of Fordham University School of Law where she was a Leitner Fellow. Amy is also a member of the NACRJ Policy Workgroup crafting policy guidelines on use of community and restorative justice alongside the criminal and juvenile legal systems.

Kevin McElroy joined the faculty in the summer of 2006 initially teaching Appellate Advocacy. Since then, in addition to teaching the required first year Legal Analysis, Writing and Research classes each semester, he has taught a number of courses including Federal Civil Procedure and Selected Problems in New York Civil Procedure. Kevin also teaches a variety of courses designed to give the students instruction and practical experience in both writing and litigation skills such as the written discovery stage of a lawsuit and the taking and defending of deposition. In both 2015 and 2020 he was selected as the law school’s Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching at Hofstra he serves on a pro bono basis as a court appointed arbitrator in fee disputes between attorneys and their clients. He has consulted with New York State Board of Law Examiners on potential future essay questions by providing input on the appropriateness of proposed essay questions. Kevin serves as the law school’s representative in the Hofstra University Senate. He has judged the Moot Court competitions on a regular basis for a number of years and has lectured to third year students on preparing for specific areas of law covered on the Uniform Bar Examination. He is also the Faculty Advisor for the Irish Law Society. Prior to teaching at Hofstra Kevin represented clients before federal and state courts across the country since being admitted to the New York Bar in 1987 including a significant number of cases involving employment law matters, contracts and toxic torts. He has also served as an Administrative Law Judge on matters arising under state and local health laws. His writings have been published in a number of legal periodicals including The National Law Journal, The New York Law Journal and The Fordham Environmental Law Reporter. He has spoken on litigation topics at events sponsored by the Defense Research Institution and the New York State Bar Association and recently delivered a lecturer at the Nassau County Bar Association on the developments in the last year in the field of New York State Court Practice under the Civil Practice Law and Rules.

David is a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court in Queens County, Criminal Term. Prior to his election to the Supreme Court in 2021, he served as a Judge of the New York City Criminal Court in both Bronx and Queens Counties. Before his Criminal Court appointment, he was Principal Law Clerk to two New York State Supreme Court Justices, during which time he was a director of the Association of Law Secretaries to Justices of the Supreme and Surrogate Courts. Presently, David is the first vice president of the Brandeis Law Association, secretary of the Queens Supreme Court Justices' Association, and co-chair of the Association of Justices of the State of New York's Judicial Security Committee. Before serving as a law clerk, David was a senior assistant district attorney in New York City where he prosecuted white-collar crimes including racketeering, enterprise corruption, extortion, usury, gambling, fraud, and public corruption, and supervised the arrest, intake, and arraignment process. While specializing in the direction of covert investigations and electronic surveillance, he successfully litigated and tried numerous cases, several of which significantly impacted legal precedent. He also practiced criminal defense and frequently writes and speaks extensively on issues of criminal law and procedure for the bench and bar including search and seizure, electronic surveillance, and bail reform. Academically, David is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law with the City University of New York at Queens College and Touro College. He has also taught trial advocacy at Hofstra Law School’s National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and Cardozo Law School’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. He has also served as director of the high school mock trial program at both the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Mesivta Ateres Yaakov as well as a judge in the New York Statewide High School Mock Trial Tournament. Communally, David is a director of the Alpha Epsilon Pi International Fraternity and previously served as both a regional governor and chapter advisor. He is also president of the Jewish Community Baseball League of Queens and Long Island, and previously served as a director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, the Kew Gardens Hills Youth Center, and the Queens District Attorney’s Jewish Advisory Council.

The Managing Attorney at Woolf Law Firm, LLC, Brian J. Woolf divides his practice between criminal defense matters and personal injury and wrongful death litigation. Located in East Hartford, Connecticut, he provides representation to clients throughout the state as well as in Florida and Massachusetts. Admitted to practice in all three of those states, Mr. Woolf is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. He is also admitted to practice before the United States 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and The United States Supreme Court. In his criminal defense practice, Mr. Woolf provides assistance to clients who have been accused by the state or federal government with the commission of misdemeanor or felony offenses. The types of cases that he has experience in handling have included sexual assault, child pornography, murder, kidnapping, burglary, driving under the influence of alcohol, drug possession and distribution, White Collar crimes including embezzlement, forgery, banking, securities, tax evasion, food stamp etc. Mr. Woolf's personal injury and wrongful death background involves representing people who have been harmed by the negligence of other parties. These cases have primarily arisen out of incidents such as truck and other motor vehicle crashes and pedestrian accidents. He has earned the respect of his colleagues in all of his endeavors for both his successful track record and high degree of ethics, as evidenced by his receipt of a 10.0 "Superb" peer review rating through Avvo. Mr. Woolf is a 1973 recipient of a Bachelor of Arts from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Israel. After obtaining a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, he went on to attend the University of Connecticut School of Law, and he was awarded his Juris Doctor with Honors in 1977.

David E. Clark is one of the top criminal defense lawyers in Georgia. He listens to each client and treats them with respect. He always visits appeal clients in prison and answers letters the same day he receives them. You only get one appeal, and it needs to be done right the first time. Clark has obtained good results for most of the thousands of people who have hired him over his 30-year career. No bar complaints have been sustained against him, and he always provides effective assistance. He is rated “av” (highest rating – preeminent) in both “legal ability” and “ethical standards” by the Martindale-Hubbell peer-review authority. Having a creative and analytical mind, he has a way of talking to judges that works. Every lawyer who goes up against Clark would tell you he is always prepared. As Clark puts it, “To win a case you have to know the facts better than the police; know the law better than the prosecutor; and know the courtroom rules better than the judge.” Several years ago, Clark decided to specialize in criminal appeals. He was hired as Director of the Appellate Division of the Georgia Public Defender Council in 2016, where he was in charge of more than a thousand criminal appeals statewide. He has taught most of the other criminal defense lawyers in Georgia how to handle criminal appeals. Clark left his executive position with the Public Defender Council in 2018 to return to private practice. He uses a system that is designed to catch every possible error and issue that might result in a reversal or sentence reduction. He uses top-flight investigators and computerized legal research tools. Clark writes a brief early in the process to try and get results for his clients as soon as possible. When Clark is your lawyer, you can be sure that “no stone was left unturned.”

Emily Tramont is a senior litigation associate at the law firm, Hoey & Farina, P.C., in downtown Chicago. Emily Tramont is a trial attorney at the Chicago personal injury law firm of Hoey & Farina and concentrates her practice on cases arising from railroad negligence, FELA cases, automobile collisions, truck accidents, nursing home negligence, medical malpractice, premises liability, dram shop act, pet litigation, and product liability. She is an experienced personal injury litigator and has obtained impressive verdicts on behalf of her clients through trials, arbitrations, and settlements. Prior to becoming a Plaintiff's attorney, Emily worked as a defense attorney. Originally from Miami, Florida, Emily is also licensed to practice in Florida. Emily holds a license to practice law from the Illinois Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court; she is admitted to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois.

In 2023, Super Lawyers named Elizabeth McInturff a Top Rated Civil Litigation Attorney. This marks her inaugural time as a Super Lawyer, after being on the Maryland/DC Rising Stars lists from 2016-2022. She recently was named a Fellow to the American Bar Foundation. She also was named a Leading Woman by The Daily Record. She represents individuals and businesses throughout Maryland and Washington D.C. in complex civil and commercial matters. In addition to focusing on Plaintiff’s side litigation, contract disputes, employment litigation, construction litigation, and actions arising under consumer protection acts and state wage laws, she takes on clients in private domestic law matters, including in guardianship matters. She regularly appears before State and Federal Courts, as well as before administrative and arbitration bodies, and is a columnist for The Daily Record’s Maryland Family Law Update. Active in the Bar Association of Montgomery County, Maryland, she co-chairs the Leadership Development Academy and serves on the Strategic Planning Committee and Judicial Nominations Panel Committee, among others. She also serves on the Bar Foundation of Montgomery County’s Maryland CLE Committee and was inducted into the Foundation's Bar Leaders. Additionally, she holds memberships in Montgomery County American Inns of Court and Women’s Bar Association of Maryland – Montgomery County Chapter and is a board trustee with Bike to the Beach. McInturff earned her Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law with the Highest-Grade Certification. A National Semi-Finalist in the ABA Arbitration Competition, she mediated disputes with Access Youth, Inc. and represented clients in domestic and immigration matters at the Women and the Law Legal Clinic. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware, where she was on the Dean’s List, a Student-Athlete Academic All-Star, a student-athlete mentor, and a member of the varsity Women’s Rowing Team.