Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - International Dispute Resolution

Professor Dr. Jörg Risse LL.M. (Berkeley), apart from being widely recognized as one of the leading arbitration lawyers in Germany, is a wonderful professor. The Oral Advocacy course taught by Professor Risse was easily one of my favorite and memorable modules that I took during my IDR LL.M at Humboldt. Professor Risse is knowledgeable and enthusiastic in his teaching of advocacy skills. His experience, skills and creativity in the classroom were marvelous and present from the very first moment he started teaching. His assignments were all relevant and contributed to our improvement as presenters and critical thinkers. The time and effort that have gone into his course were evident through the attention to detail and the valuable comments he made throughout.

As part of the course, students were required to give a presentation and obtained detailed review and feedback from Professor Risse. Professor Risse gave constructive criticism, that personally, helped me to rethink and revise my presenting process. At the same time he was very encouraging and made himself available to students. It is worth noting that he structured the class discussions very well and ensured that all students participated. Professor Risse took the time and energy to make sure that all students had a great learning experience. For example, in-class assignments about presentation techniques helped me to grasp the main ideas which we had been learning. As an oral advocacy course, it was incredibly valuable. Having completed the course I feel more confident in my abilities to present cases during hearings. I believe this was possible thanks to the instructions that the professor gave during every class. Specifically, I appreciated his ability to maintain the progression of a discussion over the course of a class, while never devaluing a comment made by a student. In terms of writing instruction, I was thoroughly appreciative of Professor Risse’s helpfulness and openness. In class, I thoroughly appreciated the use of concrete examples of previous students’ writing that either failed or succeeded in its goals. I continued to use those examples as reference points throughout the course.