Professor Bernstein is a trial consultant who helps attorneys prepare for trial. Before joining UCLA, he was a litigator at O’Melveny & Myers and Haynes & Boone, where he represented Fortune 500 companies and other publicly traded corporations.

Professor Bernstein teaches courses in Trial Advocacy and Evidence. In 2022, he received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest teaching honor.

Professor Bernstein coaches the law school’s Trial Team. He is the youngest person ever inducted into the American Mock Trial Association’s Coaches Hall of Fame. He has coached more than 50 trial advocacy teams to national championships at the law school, collegiate, and high school levels. His college and law school teams at UC Irvine, NYU, and UCLA School of Law have nine times finished their seasons ranked #1 in the United States.

Professor Bernstein is the former president, and a current board member, of the American Mock Trial Association. He created Gladiator and Trial by Combat (the first high school and college 1-on-1 mock trial competitions) and The Verdict (the first national jury trial competition). He has written more than 30 mock trial cases. In 2021, he received the Neal Smith Award for exemplary contributions to legal education.

Professor Bernstein has co-authored two books: Trial Advocacy in a Nutshell (7th edition) and Championship Mock Trial. He co-hosts a trial advocacy podcast, Unscripted Direct, with Spencer Pahlke from UC Berkeley School of Law.

At UC Berkeley, he won three All-American Attorney Awards. At NYU School of Law, he won both school-wide closing argument competitions.