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Photograph of Cynthia Goode Works

Cynthia Goode Works Adjunct Professor WCL Adjunct Faculty

Degrees
LL.M., Temple University School of Law 2002 ( Trial Advocacy)
J.D., American University Washington College of Law 1992
B.S., Texas A&M University 1989

Bio

Upon graduation from AU WCL in 1992, Professor Goode Works completed a judicial clerkship in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Following her clerkship, she worked as a criminal defense attorney at the renowned D.C. Public Defender Service. Works  then left criminal litigation and worked as a corporate and civil litigator and later as the Director of Training and Education for the National Legal Aid & Defender Association,  where she was responsible for the program development and curriculum design of continuing legal education programs for civil legal aid attorneys and public defenders across the country.



Professor Goode Works has a solid background in the academic arena, having held faculty appointments at George Mason University School of Law, Howard University School of Law, and AUWCL. At AUWCL, Goode Works has coached trial advocacy team students and taught evidence to 2L and 3Ls.



During her tenure as a professor at Howard, the advocacy team compiled an impressive number of accolades and titles, including being named as one of the top sixteen trial advocacy programs in the country, securing several regional championships, and culminating with winning the National Championship at the NITA Tournament of Champions Competition – a historic first for an HBCU. While there, she also taught in and managed the Criminal Justice Clinic component of the Law School's Clinical Law Center.  She concentrated her legal research agenda and teaching activities in the fields of reentry, criminal law and procedure, evidence, and clinical education. For her scholarship, Goode Works received the Distinguished Faculty Author Award from the president and provost of the university.



In addition to the practice of law, Professor Goode Works specializes in the development of advocacy training programs across the United States to law firms, corporations and government agencies.  Most notably, she has served as a faculty member and program director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in both their public and in-house training programs for almost 20 years, teaching in over 100 advocacy programs. She has also taught for Lawyers Without Borders and the National Center for State Courts in the Caribbean and Africa.



To complement the practice of law and the teaching of advocacy, she  matriculated to Temple University, James E. Beasley School of Law’s innovative and highly selective LL.M. in Trial Advocacy Program where she received the Most Outstanding Advocate Award from her professors and peers.



Professor Goode Works is an accomplished trial attorney who was named a 2020 "Top Lawyer" by Washingtonian Magazine and maintained a private law practice located in D.C. and the Maryland suburbs handling complex and high-profile matters, prior to coming to WCL.

Areas of Specialization
Evidence
Trial Advocacy
For the Media
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