Howard Roark's Testimony At The Cortlandt Trial Howard Roark’s testimony at the Cortlandt trial seemed to be a way for Rand to make her “ideal man” to end as a hero. His testimony and explanations are very convincing and even logical. However, his biggest error is revealed in this section of the story. The error was obviously letting Keating propose Roark’s unaltered design so it could be constructed. Even though Roark knew that he would not be convincing to people, this conflicts with his individualistic and “egotistic” ideals. Before this event, Roark’s only persuasion for construction was merely “as it was design