Our history, mission, & vision
The San Diego Inn of Court was established in the 1970s by the Honorable Louis Welsh and a group of founding directors who are legends of the San Diego legal community: William G. Bailey, Hon. Richard D. Huffman, Gerald L. McMahon, and Hon. Kevin Midlam.
The mission of the Inn is to advance skills and knowledge required for excellent trial advocacy and to enhance ethics and civility within the San Diego County legal community.
While inspired by the American Inns of Court, the San Diego Inn of Court is unique. It alone focuses its efforts on preparing San Diego lawyers to try jury trials through two annual programs where each participant gets direct, hands-on training and individualized feedback. Award-winning trial attorneys and judges—with decades of experience—observe and critique each student as they conduct voir dire, opening statement, direct examination, cross examination, and closing argument.
San Diego Inn of Court Board of Directors - 1989
Back Row (Left to right): Gary Bailey, John Einhorn, Dave Gill, Kevin Midlam, Cary Miller, Vincent DiFiglia, James Milliken, Art Jones and Dick Huffman.
Front Row (Left to right): Charlie Grebing, Ginny Nelson, Hon. Lou Welsh and Doug Butz.
"Everybody’s really supportive. We’re all here to learn and so one of the things I noticed is we all kind of help each other out, and it is a great group environment because you can watch someone else do something before you sometimes and it’s like ‘okay, I like what they did.'"
Jessica Ayala, Esq.