South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 6, Ed. 1, April, 2008 Page: 3 of 8
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April 2008
Page 3
South Texas
Advocacy, first in
Nation to mark 100
National Titles
By Dorothy Meindok-Arajuo
Staff Writer
Once, I was invited to a mock
trial competition hosted by a law
firm. I was asked to help out by
being a witness for the interns that
were being hosted by the firm in
the competition. I was happy to
do it because I wanted to see for
myself what skills other schools
send their graduates out with. I
must tell you, I was floored and
left feeling that every expensive
penny dropped on STCL tuition
was truly worth it.
The schools represented were
many; some in fact were Ivy
League and so on.... I was just a
STCL 1L. I felt a little intimidated,
I'll admit; but once the game
started, that feeling fled with a
fury, and I realized that I already
knew my way around a courtroom
better than some, if not most of
these distinguished 3Ls! Simply
from observation, while serving
as a witness to our varsity teams,
I could count the mistakes being
made in this tournament. I knew
right then and there, our school
was special and our advocacy
opportunities endless.
Nationwide, South Texas is
renowned for fierce traditional
advocacy. Each year we add on
title after title and well, we finally
did it. South Texas College of
Law won its 100th national
championship.
Traditional South Texas
Advocacy is comprised of mock
trial and moot court competing
teams. These teams, together,
bring home the trophies that have
helped to put STCL on the law
school map in a legendary way.
One marker that sets us apart from
the rest is consistency, year after
year.
Our coaches are a part of the
winning equation that defines our
success. Head Coach, Dean
Treece has spent tireless years
building this award tilled
program. Alongside him there
have been and are many
professional coaches such as Rob
Galloway, an extraordinary
Appellate Counselor that molds
moot court winners; Ann Johnson,
Laura and Jason Fowell, and Jen
Falk are just a few of the coaches
that continue to give our future
trial lawyers that competitive edge
in mock trial competitions.
Balancing the other side of the
equation, is a support staff that
backs up our varsity and
intramural program which is our
STCL Board of Advocates
(BOA). This year's leadership is
headed by Kevin Camp and
Morgan Driscoll. The board
provides the behind the scenes
support for the traditional
advocacy program doing things
such as helping to provide
witnesses, judges and practice
rooms among other critical
functions. In addition, the BOA
puts on intramural moot and mock
competitions each semester for
the student body enrolled in
advocacy skills classes.
And of course, the equation
just wouldn't be worth much
without the stellar advocates that
represent us in competition
nationwide. Winning isn't easy.
In addition to the full time school
schedules and internships/jobs
they juggle, they schedule in
upwards of 15-20 additional hours
every week, on average, per
competition.
This year alone, our varsity
teams have brought home trophies
from, Southern Illinois,
Georgetown, New Orleans and
several others on the regional
level. Recently, our advocates
were out representing us in four
competitions, and our Philip C.
Jessup International Moot team
left on Sunday.
Our 100th winning team of
Stephanie Howell, Jessica Sykora,
and Kristen Welsh won the
August Rendigs National
Products Liability Moot Court
Competition sponsored by the
University of Cincinnati School of
Law. The team also won the
award for Best Petitioner's Brief.
Our second moot team, Justin
Jenson, Kellen Scott, and
Veronica Skerhut broke through
to the semi-finals in this same
competition.
Other honors this weekend
include: «
ABA National Finals in
Chicago:
Semifinal team Morgan
Driscoll, Michael Long, and
Spencer Solomon
Octafinal team — Courtney
Carlson, Alex Horton, and Adam
Massey
Fourth Best Advocate — Adam
Massey
Second Best Brief — Spencer
Solomon
Our AAJ (formerly ATLA)
National Finals in West Palm
Beach, Florida team consisted of
Mike Seely, Sarah Mickelson,
Jordan Mullins, and Kelly Smith
and at the time of this writing were
competing.
Award-winning Advocacy is
key in defining South Texas
College of Law. Our well
established traditional
competitions coupled with our
ever growing contemporary
advocacy ensure a future as bright
as our past. There is a place for
everyone to contribute, learn and
compete, either on an intramural
or varsity team as an advocate,
witness or both.
So how do you get started?
Moot competition tryouts usually
take place after participation in the
Appellate Advocacy skills course.
A good way to get started in mock
trial if you are interested, is trying
out for Summer Academy 2008.
It is run by our Board of
Advocates, and is one way of
getting exposure to the
professional coaches that may
recruit you for a traveling team.
No matter how you fair as fia-
as making a varsity team, you will
have fun and learn skill sets in
Summer Academy, advocacy
classes and trying out for '
traditional and contemporary
advocacy competition teams; real
skills that you will use in your
career.
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Lewis, Tamara E. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 6, Ed. 1, April, 2008, newspaper, April 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144585/m1/3/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.