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Empowering Law Students To Overcome Extreme Public Speaking Anxiety: Why Just Be It Works And Just Do It Doesn't, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

For law students experiencing extreme public speaking anxiety, which can manifest from variations of introversion, shyness, social anxiety, or social phobia, the Socratic method of intellectual discourse — either in the classroom or in the first-year oral argument experience — can trigger such a high level of apprehension that it may threaten even an otherwise strong student’s confidence in his or her future as an attorney. Extreme public speaking anxiety can pose a serious impediment to processing and comprehending legal concepts, and engaging with professors, classmates, and substantive material. Unless the anxious law student takes steps to address the roots …