Faculty and Administration Profiles

William X. Elward

About

Bill Elward teaches full time at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Elward teaches Evidence, Advanced Evidence, Bar Exam Preparation, and Trial Advocacy. He is also a part-time Special Prosecutor for the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, handling conflict criminal prosecutions and cold case investigations throughout the State of Illinois. From 1997-2018 he was an Assistant Attorney General assigned to the Illinois Attorney General’s Criminal Trials Assistance Bureau. Elward was lead counsel on complex prosecutions ranging from commercial fraud and Internet crime cases to first-degree murders. Similar to complex commercial practice, Elward's cases involved extensive pretrial discovery, depositions and experts; however, the vast majority of his cases ended up in trial, which has given him the opportunity to try between 75 and 100 jury trials to verdict. Elward was Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Loyola University Chicago Law School from 2012-18. Elward also teaches Trial Advocacy at the University Of Chicago School of Law each year and has taught trial advocacy at numerous law schools.        

Elward is the Director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Midwest Trials Skills Program. Elward teaches deposition practice, motion practice, and trial skills for NITA nationally and internationally. In addition to his law school teaching, Elward supervised deposition training statewide for the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Along with teaching several deposition and trial programs each year for private law firms throughout the United States, the Irish Department of Public Prosecutions has twice invited Elward to teach trial skills in Dublin, Ireland. Elward also taught evidence and criminal procedure at the Alberto Hurtado University Law School in Santiago, Chile, and taught comparative criminal procedure in Rome, Italy. From 2014 to the present, Elward has worked as a consultant for NITA, developing programs for government agencies and law firms throughout the U.S. 

In 2010, Elward was recognized by the Illinois State Appellate Prosecutor’s Office for Outstanding Instruction in Depositions and Trial Skills. In 2008, he received the Robert Bellarmine Award for Outstanding Law School Alumnus at Loyola Law School. Elward also teaches evidence, criminal law, and bar exam preparation for Themis Bar Prep. Elward is a cum laude graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he was the Research Editor on the Consumer Law Reporter.

Degrees

BA, English, Loyola University Chicago, 1982

JD, Cum laude, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 1993

Program Areas

Evidence, Trial Practice

Courses Taught

Evidence, Advanced Evidence, Advanced Trial Practice, Bar Exam Fundamentals