Law Students Arguing For Trip To National Championship

Robert Goins, left, University of Arkansas law student with the school’s law team, walks back to his desk Thursday after speaking with the judges, from left, Sonya Dodson, Michael Dodson and Vince Chaddick during a mock trial in the courtroom at the Old Washington County Courthouse during the the Regional Championship of the annual National Trial Competition. The regional championship brings together 22 teams from law schools in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee. The top two teams will compete in the National Competition in San Antonio on April 3-6.
Robert Goins, left, University of Arkansas law student with the school’s law team, walks back to his desk Thursday after speaking with the judges, from left, Sonya Dodson, Michael Dodson and Vince Chaddick during a mock trial in the courtroom at the Old Washington County Courthouse during the the Regional Championship of the annual National Trial Competition. The regional championship brings together 22 teams from law schools in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee. The top two teams will compete in the National Competition in San Antonio on April 3-6.

— Future Perry Masons tried a murder case Thursday in Fayetteville but instead of someone going to prison, law students got to show off their courtroom skills.

At A Glance

Trial Competition Rounds

Final rounds in the regional championship will be Saturday at the Washington County Courthouse, 280 N. College Ave. The public can attend.

• Quarterfinal Rounds: 8:30 a.m.

• Final Round: 1:30 p.m.

Source: Staff Report

The Regional Championship of the annual Texas Young Lawyers Association National Trial Competition brings together 22 teams from law schools in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee for three days of mock trials. Teams are judged on their performances. The top two teams will go on to compete in the national competition April 3-6 in San Antonio.

“We’re thrilled to be hosting this event,” said Don Judges, associate dean for graduate programs and experiential learning at the University of Arkansas School of Law. “There are two main national trial competitions. This is one of those two and they’re both highly prestigious.”

Teams from the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma City University on Thursday took on a homicide case with an insanity plea. “John Drath” was accused of shooting his teen daughter’s older lover, “Step Walker.”

“It’s got some good issues in it,” Judges said. “It will give the advocates a chance to display their skills. It’ll be just like a trial.”

Each team presented opening statements to preview their evidence. Witnesses were called, examined and cross-examined. Closing arguments were made. There were objections and rulings from the bench.

But, when the trial ended, there was no verdict. Instead, the students’ performances were critiqued by trial lawyers, who served as judges.

The Arkansas team won.

Preliminary rounds began Thursday, continue today and final rounds are Saturday.

The National Trial Competition was established in 1975 to encourage and strengthen students’ advocacy skills through quality competition and interaction with members of the bench and bar.

Colin Johnson, with the Davis Law Firm in Fayetteville, competed in 2007 for the university law school.

“It was an invaluable experience for me especially, someone who wanted to be a trial lawyer,” Johnson said. “Law school does a very good job of teaching you the fundamentals, the theories and basics and how to gather information about the law, but there’s not as much focus on trial practice and trial advocacy.”

Johnson said courtroom experience available to law students usually involves extracurricular activities, internal trial competitions or clinics.

“The National Trial Competition provided me with an opportunity to intensely focus on and hone my courtroom ability while a law student,” Johnson said. “I think that comfort in the courtroom is one of the things that I certainly gained that a lot of my contemporaries did not until they got out and had to go and make a few mistakes in front of a judge.”

Johnson said the competition allows participants to make and learn from mistakes without hurting a client.

“There’s a lot more on the line when you’re representing a real, live, breathing client in front of a judge or jury as opposed to being in a competition,” Johnson said. “I think all my teammates would agree that we had an invaluable experience and opportunity to hone some of those skills and to learn and take some of those hard knocks in a competition setting as opposed to learning it when you have a real client at the table.”

The regional championship is organized by the law school’s Board of Advocates. Courtrooms and facilities are provided by the county, the city and the university. More than 100 lawyers and judges are volunteer judges. More than 200 volunteers are witnesses and timekeepers. Several businesses are also participating.

Bud Hanks, a retired Riverside County, Calif. police officer who lives in Fayetteville, played “Dusty Stockard,” an investigator, during the trial. Hanks was recruited by law school faculty he knows from church. Michael Dodson, Sonya Dodson and Vince Chaddick were judges.

“This is a big undertaking,” Judges said. “The support from the community has been just phenomenal.”

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