Tuesday June 2

2026

Basic Trial Skills: Direct and Cross-Examinations

About the Faculty

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  Gary Bendinger (Law Competition Faculty)

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  GARY BENDINGER, a partner in Sidley's New York office, is an accomplished complex commercial litigator, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Member in the Litigation Counsel of America. He has been brought in as lead trial counsel on matters in a variety of jurisdictions, including California, New York, Alaska, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. He is recognized in Chambers USA (Securities Litigation). Chambers USA notes that Gary “draws on significant experience in securities work, and has an impressive reputation for his courtroom skills.” He is described “as "˜the quintessential trial lawyer,' stating that "˜he focuses on what's important and knows how to let go of inconsequential details.'” He has been recognized for more than 20 years in The Best Lawyers in America (Commercial Litigation and Professional Malpractice Law) and is recognized by Benchmark Litigation (Litigation Star, nationally in Securities and in New York). Gary is also recognized in Super Lawyers in the areas of Securities Litigation, Business Litigation and Antitrust Litigation.

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  Tom Fitzpatrick (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Thomas Fitzpatrick has over 35 years of experience both as a prosecutor and as a defense lawyer. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and he has consistently been listed in both Best Lawyers in America and New York Super Lawyers. Mr. Fitzpatrick's practice is devoted to white collar criminal and SEC/FINRA and other SRO investigations and proceedings. He represents officers and employees of major U.S. and foreign commercial and investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms, public and private companies in retail, construction and other areas; attorneys, accountants, doctors and other professionals. After graduating from Fordham Law School as a member of the Law Review and ranked first in his class, Mr. Fitzpatrick was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to King's College School of Law in London. Following his Fulbright, Mr. Fitzpatrick worked as an associate for Rogers and Wells before joining the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. As an Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Fitzpatrick handled a wide range of criminal investigations, trials (30 to verdict) and appeals (about 12). He was promoted to Assistant Chief of the Division during that period. He then joined the full-time faculty at Fordham Law School, where he taught Evidence, Trial Advocacy and Criminal Law. Subsequently, he became a partner at Martin, Obermaier & Morvillo (the firm later became Obermaier, Morvillo, Abramowitz & Fitzpatrick). He returned to the U.S. Attorney's office (S.D.N.Y.) as Chief of the Criminal Division, where he supervised all the prosecutors in the Division and handled his own cases as well. Mr. Fitzpatrick's representations cover virtually the entire range of white collar offenses, including tax fraud (evasion, failure to file, tax shelters, payroll and sales tax), securities fraud (insider trading, accounting fraud, mutual fund trading practices, mortgage securitization practices, disclosure issues), antitrust, Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, money laundering and structuring cash transactions, mail and wire fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice, health care fraud and immigration, among others. Mr. Fitzpatrick has represented clients before federal, state and local courts, prosecutors and regulators throughout the United States and in more than a dozen foreign cities, including London, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bonn, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. Mr. Fitzpatrick's clients are assured of his personal attention to all phases of their representation. When a particular investigation or trial requires additional support, he regularly utilizes an experienced, highly skilled solo practitioner who has an LLM in taxation as well as other similarly skilled and experienced solo practitioners and small firms.

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  Shawn Kelly (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Fellow of the ACTL; past chairman of the Nassau- Suffolk Trial Lawyers Association; Graduate of the University of Notre dame; Lecturer St. John's Law school, Hofstra Law School, NYSBA . I previously lectured for the corporation counsel of the City of New York as part of a program sponsored by the ACTL.

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  Larry Krantz (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Partner with Krantz & Berman LLP. Born in NYC in 1956. Graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1980. Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

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  Avraham Moskowitz (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Avi Moskowitz, a 1980 graduate of Columbia Law School and a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1985-1991), focuses on criminal defense and commercial litigation matters. His criminal defense cases have run the gamut from securities fraud and public corruption to capital murder and racketeering and virtually every type of case in between. He has successfully represented clients in white-collar investigations and prosecutions in the federal courts in New York and New Jersey, as well as the state courts in New York. Equally important, he has helped clients under investigation to avoid indictment by providing sound advice and effectively advocating on behalf of his clients before prosecuting and regulatory authorities. In addition to his white-collar criminal practice, Avi is one of only a handful of attorneys to have tried a federal capital case to verdict, helping his client avoid the death penalty in United States v. Quinones and Rodriguez . In the past fifteen years, Avi has successfully represented more than twenty-five clients charged with capital crimes in the federal courts of New York. In his civil practice, Avi has handled all types of cases including civil RICO, breach of contract, employment discrimination, insurance coverage, products liability and intellectual property matters. During his tenure as Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Avi tried twenty-four cases to verdict, and successfully argued numerous appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Since 1991, Avi has been an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy at New York Law School. He has also taught trial advocacy to lawyers as a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). Avi's superior skills and integrity have been recognized by his peers who have given him an AV rating, the highest peer rating in the Martindale-Hubbell ratings system. In 2011, Avi was elected by his peers as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, in recognition of his outstanding skills as a trial lawyer.

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  James Quinn (Law Competition Faculty)

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  James Quinn is an accomplished trial lawyer who, until 2013, served for many years as co-head of Weil's litigation department. Mr. Quinn specializes in high stakes commercial disputes. He has practiced in all areas of complex litigation and alternative dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on antitrust,securities, false advertising, sports, entertainment, patent, and related complex intellectual property litigation.

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  Maurice Sercarz (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Mr. Sercarz, a member of the New York bar since 1977, has tried more than 100 major felony cases. His practice is focused primarily on criminal trials and appeals including public corruption, securities fraud, environmental and organized crime cases. Among his clients, Mr. Sercarz numbers judges, lawyers, members of law enforcement, and public figures. Mr. Sercarz is named among the best criminal defense lawyers in New York in the “Super Lawyers,” and he has received the AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has been elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (an honor limited to only 1% of the attorneys in America). In April of 2014, Mr. Sercarz represented a lawyer in a public corruption case involving allegations of fraud and kickbacks in real estate development projects financed through HUD and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Following a three week trial the defendant was acquitted on all charges. Within a span of two months during the summer of 2006, Maurice H. Sercarz obtained an acquittal in Supreme Court, New York County, for a decorated New York police detective allegedly involved in the 23rd Precinct bribery scandal; and then, teaming with his partner Roland G. Riopelle, secured the acquittal of a New York Stock Exchange specialist on charges of securities fraud in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. Among his other notable trials were the lone acquittal among 18 defendants charged with membership in the infamous “No Name” heroin organization; and his recent acquittal of a defendant on charges of murder in New York County notwithstanding a full confession. Mr. Sercarz's successful advocacy has not been limited to the trial courtroom. In 1981, Mr. Sercarz represented one of the six defendants originally arrested in the notorious Brink's robbery which resulted in the killing of an armed guard and a Rockland County Police Officer and the highly publicized arrest of members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. When Mr. Sercarz entered the case, his client was facing possible murder charges in Rockland County and was jailed as the result of her refusal to provide fingerprint, handwriting and hair samples to a Federal Grand Jury in the Southern District of New York. In short order, Mr. Sercarz won a reversal of the contempt proceeding in a landmark Federal Appeals decision, In Re Rosahn, 671 F.2d 690 (2d Cir. 1982) which limited the capacity of courts to conduct contempt proceedings from which the public is barred. Meanwhile, Mr. Sercarz obtained evidence establishing that his client was not involved in the Brinks holdup leading the Rockland County Attorney's Office to dismiss all charges against her. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of North Carolina School of Law, Mr. Sercarz founded Sercarz & Riopelle, LLP with his partner, Roland G. Riopelle, in 2003. Mr. Sercarz teaches trial advocacy as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. He has lectured on a variety of criminal law topics for the following organizations and programs: The Intensive Trial Advocacy Program at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law; The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (N.I.T.A.); The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (N.A.C.D.L.); The New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (N.Y.S.A.C.D.L.) and the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society. Mr. Sercarz has appeared on numerous television shows to discuss topics pertaining to the criminal justice system including the Today Show; Fox News Network and Court TV. Mr. Sercarz is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, federal courts in the Second and Third Circuits, and the State Bars of New York and New Jersey. He is a member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and The New York Criminal Bar Association.

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  Robert Wise (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Mr. Wise is senior counsel in Davis Polk's Litigation Department. He has concentrated in commercial and complex litigation, including securities, antitrust, contracts, and business tort cases. His clients in these matters include investment and commercial banks, professional firms, officers and directors, and industrial companies. His practice has involved both trial and appellate advocacy. He has tried jury and non-jury cases in federal and state courts in New York, California, Texas and other states. Mr. Wise has an active securities litigation and SEC enforcement practice on behalf of both issuers and financial institutions.

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  Stanley Arkin (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Attorney

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  Ritchie Berger (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Attorney

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  George Goltzer (Law Competition Faculty)

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  Attorney