Judge Valderrama strongly encourages attorneys and their clients to provide substantive speaking opportunities to less experienced attorneys during the following Court proceedings: motion and status hearings, settlement conferences, claim-construction hearings, pretrial conferences, evidentiary hearings, and sentencings. To that end, Judge Valderrama allows more than one attorney per side to speak during any proceeding if the attorneys let Judge Valderrama know at the beginning of the hearing that a less experienced attorney is speaking under the supervision of a lead attorney. So lead attorneys may not only confer with the newer attorney to suggest additional argument or examination questions, they also may jump in as reasonably necessary to deliver additional argument or even to conduct additional witness examination. The Court also strongly encourages less experienced attorneys to conduct witness examinations or other proceedings at trial such as opening statements or closing arguments; however, the Court must balance the benefits of experience for newer litigators with efficiency and fairness considerations. Therefore, although conferral with the trial team is always permitted during an examination (and indeed, encouraged when necessary), the examination of a witness and objections with respect to that witness are limited to one attorney on the trial team. A second attorney on the trial team shall not examine the witness or object to that witness’ examination without leave of Court.