The Research Committee of the American Society of Trial Consultants (ASTC) is sponsoring a Student Research Poster Competition at the 2025 Annual ASTC Annual Conference, which will be held in New Orleans, L.A. from May 29-31, 2025. After blind review by the Research Committee, competitive posters will be accepted for presentation and entered into the poster competition.

 

The poster topic need not be related directly to trial consulting or jury behavior. Although papers on topics such as jury or judge decision making, venue surveys, witness preparation, jury selection, and attorney openings and closings are welcome, we also invite work on other relevant topics with potential application to better understanding of individual and group decision-making in trial settings (e.g., persuasion in small groups, visual communication, implicit bias, hindsight bias, counterfactual reasoning).

 

Submissions must be research-based. The Research Committee will judge all entries for soundness of methodology, strength of analyses, and potential contribution to the field of trial consulting and/or enhanced understanding of human behavior in litigation settings.

 

The presenter must be the first, second, or third author. Research must have been conducted while the presenting author was, or is, an actively enrolled undergraduate or graduate student in a recognized university degree program. Faculty sponsorship is encouraged but not required. The author must attend the conference for the presentation of their work.

 

Submissions are due May 1, 2025. A confirmation receipt will be sent to the presenting author.

​

Submissions should include the following:

 

1. Cover Page: The cover page should be detachable. It should include the researcher’s name(s) and designation of senior author with whom the Research Committee should communicate; university affiliation, address, telephone, and email. In anticipation of blind review by ASTC referees, NO information about the author or the author’s affiliation should be found on any pages other than the Cover Page.

 

2. Overview: Area of research, goal of the study, and how the results will contribute directly to the enhanced understanding of decision-making and communication in litigation settings.

 

3. Literature Review: Summarizing relevant literature on the topic.

 

4. Methodology: Description of quantitative and/or qualitative methodologies applied.

 

5. Results: Basic summary of findings; or the proposed theory, if the poster is theoretical.

 

6. Conclusions and Implications: What are the take-aways and, specifically, how can trial consultants use the results or theory in their trial consulting practice?

​

Style: One-inch margins, 12-point font, no more than four single spaced pages, with attachment of all tables and references. Format in .doc, .docx, or .pdf.

 

If accepted, the presenting author will be invited to present a brief summary of their research in a “data blitz" panel and will need to create a poster to print and bring to the conference. A poster template will be provided by ASTC to the author of accepted submissions.

 

All accepted posters will be entered into the ASTC Student Poster Contest. The award for the best poster is a $500 cash prize.

 

At the conference, student presenters will have two opportunities to present and discuss their research with conference attendees: 1) A 5-10-minute presentation ahead of one of the scheduled conference sessions, and 2) During a 1.5-hour happy hour and poster presentation session, where presenting authors will stand with their posters and discuss their research with attendees. During the happy hour poster session, attendees will vote on the best poster / research.

 

Award winner is announced at the ASTC conference and could be featured on the ASTC website or in ASTC publications.

​

Questions and submissions can be directed to: Faye Honig (fayehonig@gmail.com) and Michelle Rey LaRocca (michellereylarocca@gmail.com)

 

Subject line: ASTC Poster Submission