Anatomy of a Civil Trial

Apr 11

Every lawyer has to start somewhere, and I learned a lot by observing three criminal trials during and immediately after law school. So, when I hosted two college students for a one-week externship in March 2025, I took them on a tour of the federal courthouse, and we happened to see that a civil trial was about to start that very day. My externs ended up watching most of the trial, and we had great conversations every day about what they had seen and observed.

Yolanda Wang, Arrow Zhang, and I thought our discussions might be a useful way for other students to get a better sense of civil trials, so we recorded a discussion and are sharing it online. Hope you enjoy!

A few things for students to keep in mind:

This is a real-life case involving real people. Everything that Yolanda and Arrow saw was public, but we’ve not used the people’s names to protect their privacy anyways. If you want to look up the real case, contact me.
Civil cases are ultimately about two issues – liability and damages. When a plaintiff sues someone, they usually claim that the defendant did something wrong and that they suffered some kind of damages from that wrongful action. Ultimately, civil cases are often about money. How much should a defendant pay to resolve the case? In this case, there clearly was a mistake, but the big question probably was how much money the plaintiffs should get as a result.
In law school, you primarily will learn about legal arguments primarily through reading judicial decisions. But in real life, most legal work is about determining what really happened, which involves investigative skills such as interviewing, reconstructing what happened, and being able to communicate this to strangers. If you’re interested in being a lawyer, I highly recommend that you interview people, whether it be as a journalist, as an academic, or as some type of analyst.
Go to court yourself! Most trials will be interesting if you take the time to really observe them. Many federal courts have daily calendars online so you can see what’s scheduled. Pick a day when there are a few things going on and just go see what’s happening! And then, if you stick around long enough, introduce yourself to some of the lawyers when there is a lull in the trial. They probably will be wondering who you are, and many probably will be happy to talk with you. They had to start somewhere too!

Thanks to the Asian American Cultural Center for arranging this externship. Please contact me if you’re interested in setting up similar externship programs. I’m happy to help students and new lawyers get started!