Professor Tracy Walters McCormack assumed the office of President of the National Board of Trial Advocacy in October 2022.
Tracy is a lecturer and Director of Advocacy at The University of Texas School of Law. Professor McCormack practiced as a trial lawyer for 14 years in Austin before joining the faculty full-time in 2000.
She spent most of her time in private practice with the firms of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and Clark, Thomas, Winters and Newton. She has extensive experience in civil trial and appeals, mediation, arbitration, and summary jury trials. Professor McCormack also served as an adjunct professor at UT since 1990 teaching courses in Texas Civil Procedure and trial skills while in private practice. She now teaches courses in Evidence, Trial Advocacy, ADR advocacy, and related subjects.
Professor McCormack’s most recent book is “Remote Advocacy in a Nutshell” by West Publications. She has also co-authored the book, “The First Trial: Where do I sit? What do I say?” Her most recent publications explore issues associated with the decline of the jury trial, the privatization of the justice system and the appropriate use of ADR in the legal system. She heads the John L. Hill Trial Advocacy Center, the Harry M. Reasoner Center for Trial Practice and the Kincaid and Horton Excellence Fund for Empirical Advocacy Research.
Professor McCormack received a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1983 and a J.D. from the University of Texas in 1986. In 1984, she served as briefing clerk to the Honorable Thomas B. Miller, Presiding Justice, West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Professor McCormack is a member of ABOTA and on the board of NITA. She does advocacy training both nationally and internationally and just completed an arbitration training course with Karl Bayer for Arbitration University.
