The National Institute for Trial Advocacy has a thirty-year tradition of publishing excellent books for advocates. Our authors are among the most distinguished and talented lawyers, judges, and law professors in America.

Our publications are designed to help lawyers develop and refine their advocacy skills in all aspects and through every stage of handling a case in litigation—including pretrial preparation, written discovery, depositions, evidentiary issues, conducting a trial, and pursuing an appeal, as well as alternative dispute resolution.

We also publish books that help lawyers become effective advocates outside the courtroom in transactional matters and in substantive areas of the law.

Practice Commentaries

NITA’s Practice Commentaries are analyses of the federal statutes and rules intended to help practitioners better interpret their practical ramifications and, ultimately, develop a winning courtroom strategy. The commentaries are linked to the appropriate rule or section in the Lexis online research service and appear in the published copy of the United States Code Service.

The authors of the NITA Practice Commentaries are experienced attorneys with years of courtroom experience. Every commentary contains helpful advice and guidance for developing winning courtroom techniques. In addition, the authors offer the benefit of their own vast experience in the commentaries, which provide first-hand accounts of trial strategies that worked (and some that did not).

Author requirements include extensive experience with the code sections and a clear, concise writing style. The commentaries are not law review articles but analyses of the practice issues, along with recommendations and tactics for dealing with those issues. Most commentaries are about four to eight pages in length. A commentary can address a single code section or a series of commentaries can address an entire chapter or title. When more than one commentary is written addressing a series of related code sections, an overview of the materials is usually prepared.

The Commentaries project contains over 500 commentaries (for Lexis subscribers go to Legal > Federal Legal - US > United States Code Service (USCS) Materials > National Institute for Trial Advocacy Commentaries for USCS Materials) covering everything from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to Title 17 Copyrights and the RICO sections of Title 18. In addition, NITA has published several printed books that are compilations of selected commentaries.

NITA’s Publication Schedule for Practice Commentaries

Because the Practice Commentaries are published electronically they are available within weeks of receipt

Are you interested in writing a Practice Commentary for NITA?

If you have a Practice Commentary proposal ready for submission, please express interest by e-mail to publications@nita.org.

Write for NITA

The National Institute for Trial Advocacy has a 30-year tradition of publishing excellent books for advocates. Our authors are among the most distinguished and talented lawyers, judges, and law professors in America. Our publications are designed to help lawyers develop and refine their advocacy skills in all aspects and through every stage of handling a case in litigation—including pretrial preparation, written discovery, depositions, evidentiary issues, conducting a trial, and pursuing an appeal, as well as alternative dispute resolution. We also publish books that help lawyers become effective advocates outside the courtroom in transactional matters and in substantive areas of the law.

To continue NITA’s proud publishing tradition, we welcome well-crafted proposals for new books and case files that promote excellence and ethics in legal advocacy. Please submit your proposal electronically in PDF format by email to:

Darla Upchurch, JD
Publisher
Email: dupchurch@nita.org
Phone: (303) 953-6842

Proposals for books and electronic publications should include or address the following:

• Two or three paragraphs summarizing the subject matter and how it will be presented;
• A declaration of the work’s pedagogical goal and contribution to the field;
• A detailed outline or table of contents, and (preferably) a completed sample chapter;
• The intended audience or target market, including the legal practice areas it would appeal to or law school classes that might adopt the book;
• Other similar or potentially competing works (distinguish your work from them);
• Estimated final page count of the printed book or, for electronic/multimedia publications, the length of the work in minutes;
• Whether the work will have illustrations (photographs, drawings, charts, tables, etc.) or an electronic component, such as a CD or DVD;
• Estimated completion date for the manuscript (usually 6 to 12 months);
• Your curriculum vitae or resumé and current contact information.

Proposals for case files should include or address the following:

• Two or three paragraphs summarizing the case, along with sample pleadings and a sample witness statement or deposition transcript;
• A declaration of the work’s pedagogical goal;
• A detailed outline or table of contents, indicating all pleadings, witnesses, statements, depositions, expert reports, and exhibits to be included;
• The intended audience or target market, including the legal practice areas it would appeal to or law school classes that might adopt the case file;
• Estimated final page count;
• Estimated completion date for the manuscript (usually 3 to 6 months);
• Your curriculum vitae or resumé and current contact information.

Please note that proposals will be circulated internally within NITA and may be sent to third parties who regularly advise NITA on acquisitions and book development, including our publishing partner LexisNexis. Thank you!