Beresford Booth Lawyer Todd Cook Undefeated at Primerus Trial Skills Academy
Beresford Booth is a proud member of Primerus, an international society of top-rated independent law firms who share a commitment to a set of common values and high standards of legal practice. In 2025, Primerus announced the formation of the Primerus Trial Skills Academy. Over the last several months, the Trials Skills Academy has offered a series of virtual training sessions led by a national team of seasoned Primerus trial lawyers. Beresford Booth’s family law and litigation teams have participated in these virtual training sessions covering a wide variety of trial topics, including trial basics, opening and closing statements, federal rules of evidence, direct and cross examinations, jury selection and analysis, expert witness exams, trial technology and more.
In September, the inaugural year of the Primerus Trial Skills Academy culminated with an in-person mock trial competition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, attended by Primerus attorneys from across the country. Several active state and federal judges presided over the trials, which were presented to juries of local Philadelphia area law students. Cases were tried at Drexel Law School and the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice (Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas).
Todd Cook represented Beresford Booth at the mock trial competition. While he was raised in Edmonds and returned home to continue his practice at Beresford Booth, Todd’s legal roots began in Philadelphia. A graduate of Philadelphia’s Temple University School of Law and a former Federal Law Clerk in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Todd has more than 20 years of civil litigation experience.
Primerus’s competition provided unique training opportunities for Todd and his fellow attendees. The event paired lawyers together in 2-person trial teams and tasked each team to try the same case twice, once as plaintiff’s counsel and once as defense counsel. Todd was paired with Hayley Crosby, a talented Primerus lawyer from Jacksonville, Florida. On back-to-back days, Todd and Hayley tried a fire insurance coverage case to separate juries. Todd and Hayley were the only team in the program to win both of their jury trials. In their first trial, they secured a plaintiff’s verdict awarding $10,000,000 in fire insurance coverage to their mock-client. In the second trial, they prevailed on their affirmative defense of arson and persuaded the jury to return a defense verdict. They were the only defense team to win a verdict in this case. Todd felt that trying the same case from both sides was an eye-opening experience, as was the opportunity to watch the jury deliberate in real time via Zoom.
The Trial Skills Academy has provided invaluable training for our attorneys. We at Beresford Booth are committed to the ongoing growth and training of our team and look forward to participating again in the future.