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March 30, 2009
Mock trial, moot court, and education
From time to time, one of my responsibilities here at Baylor has been to coach mock trial teams. I have enjoyed the experience, and think it is a worthwhile venture in general. Certainly, I think it speaks well of our students when they win a national competition (as they did this past weekend at the NTC), and makes public the abilities and work ethic of the school. My former colleague Kent Stresseman has had remarkable success recently with his moot court teams at Chicago-Kent, and I'm sure the victories there have raised the profile of that law school and helped bring in good students.
Still, I have had heard others criticize mock trial and moot court as an educational experience. One criticism is that these activities involve so few students. Others point out that the top schools rarely do well in these competitions. I think the first group of critics have a point, but schools such as my own have tried to counter that problem by entering more competitions and thus getting more students involved. As to the second point, I would suspect that the answer to that would vary from school to school, but my sense is that top-ten schools don't put much effort into these competitions. Should they?
-- Mark Osler
March 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Law grads complain they knew nothing about the practice of law upon graduation. Taking a case through trial is a positive step. Only a small fraction of grads will litigate, so the criticism of exclusivity is not relevant. Top tier grads are not good litigators, because they are entitled, and are not ready for dispute, just total obedience to their commands from the skies.
I am interested in a new survey method for schools, because money is the sincerest form of valuation. How much does the grad of a school make? If in government, what the budget that the grad controls? That is the real survey method. Today's survey reflect wordiness and self-promotion. The current top tier schools publish a lot of worthless gibberish, or actually damaging gibberish, new ways to damage our nation. A third of law schools should be closed, since we have 500,000 too many lawyers. Start with the Top Tier.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Mar 31, 2009 9:18:11 AM
As a second year law student, I think trial advocacy and mock trials are some of the most valuable things I have done in law school. They are the ideal opportunity to actually apply what we learn in torts or criminal law and evidence. It is one thing to sit around and think about a problem before writing an exam answer. It is quite another to argue the substantive aspects of the law when there is an attorney across the aisle from you, or a panel of judges grilling you with questions. Further, mock trials and moot courts give students the experience to think outside the box and be creative, something that is not often tested or taught in a classroom.
Posted by: Josh Camson | Apr 14, 2009 3:17:13 PM
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