The University of Texas at Austin   School of Law

Education

• JD University of Texas at Austin
• BA University of Notre Dame

Areas of Specialty

• Civil Litigation
• Trial Advocacy
• Trial Tactics

Tracy Walters McCormack 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 has 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 several professional associations and organizations, including the Texas Bar Foundation, the State Bar of Texas Consumer Law Council, the National Order of Barristers and the Lloyd Lochridge Austin Inn of Court (2010-2011 President).

Recent Publications

• Probing the Legitimacy of Mandatory Mediation: New Roles for Judges, Mediators and Lawyers, 1 St. Mary's Journal of Legal Malpractice & Ethics 150 (2011) (with Susan Schultz and James McCormack).
• Honesty is the Best Policy: It's Time to Disclose Lack of Jury Trial Experience, 23 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 155 (2010) (with Christopher John Bodnar).
• The First Trial: Where Do I Sit? What Do I Say? (St. Paul, Minn.: West, 2009, with Steven H. Goldberg).

Full list of publications…

Recent Activities

• St. Mary's Journal on Legal Ethics & Malpractice Symposium

  February 18, 2011

  San Antonio, TX

  Discussed her paper entitled, “Probing the Legitimacy of Mandatory Mediation: New Roles for Judges, Mediators and Lawyers”. Presented with Susan Schultz.

• Office of the Attorney General In-House CLE

  December 9, 2010

  Austin, TX

  Speaker/Host - Texas Evidence Jeopardy: Privileges!

• UT CLE 34th Annual Page Keeton Civil Litigation Conference

  October 28, 2010

  Austin, TX

  Speaker - Arbitration: The New Litigation?

Full activities list…