Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
[STK]
[IN] EDU HED
[SU] LAW
TO EDUCATION, LEGAL AFFAIRS, AND NATIONAL EDITORS:
Effectively Training Future Lawyers At The University Of Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, March 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With many
law schools facing criticism for failing to train students to practice
law, a long series of recent national awards shows that the University
of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law achieves the opposite result.
Recent accolades include a second-place clinical program ranking in
National Jurist magazine, awards in two different national moot court
competitions, and a national student legal writing award.
The College of Law climbed to second in the nation for student
clinical opportunities, behind Yale Law School, according to data
compiled by the National Jurist magazine and reported in the winter
issue of the National Jurist's sister magazine, Prelaw. Law schools
were ranked in order of most clinical opportunities and the rankings
were calculated by dividing the number of clinical course positions
filled by the number of students in the school. The data combined both
faculty-supervised clinics and field placements of 200 law schools.
In 2012-2013, the College of Law provided 320 Clinical Program
placements to its 381 students. As a result, College of Law students
devote more than 40,000 hours annually to clinical work in the
community.
Professor Linda F. Smith, Director of the college's Clinical Program,
commented that the College's long history of service learning serves
multiple objectives, including better-trained attorneys. "It is
important for students to have community-engaged learning
opportunities to prepare them for their careers, but it also fills
important needs in our community for those who lack access to legal
services and the justice system."
Smith also noted that because the College of Law draws on external
placements as well as clinics supervised by faculty members, it can
accommodate all students who want a lawyering experience each and
every semester beginning their second year. "Taking advantage of the
school's vast range of clinical opportunities, many students enroll in
several different clinics during law school," Smith said.
The effectiveness of the College of Law's advocacy training is also
demonstrated by high-level awards from national moot court
competitions. Following on the heels of last year's award for Best
Brief at the National Moot Court Competition, at this year's
competition, held February 10-13 in New York City, the College of
Law's team of Jeremy Christiansen and Stephen Dent won the award for
Second-Best Brief in the nation. Team coach Troy Booher said, "To put
things into perspective, there were 194 briefs submitted in this
competition, and the brief by our team was better than 192 of them."
Only weeks later, the College's Environmental Law Moot Court Team of
Haley Carmer, Doug Naftz and John Robinson won Best Overall Brief at
the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition in White Plains,
New York.
That team also made the finals of the competition, meaning that they
were one of the top three teams in the nation this year. "This is a
terrific accomplishment, because advancement to the finals is based on
the students' oral arguments at the competition," said team coach
Lincoln Davies, a Professor at the College of Law. "Thus, the Utah
team was deemed the best writers in the competition and one of the top
three in terms of oral advocacy."
Finally, a second-year law student at the College of Law, Larissa Lee,
recently won a nationwide student legal writing competition sponsored
by The National Law Review. Lee's article, which won that
publication's Fall 2013 Student Legal Writing Contest, focused on
climate change and securities law disclosure.
Interim Dean Bob Adler attributes the College of Law's slate of
impressive and increasingly consistent results to several factors. "To
begin, we must credit a very capable and hard-working student body,"
he said. "Our students contribute extraordinary levels of service
while gaining valuable skills that will help them become better
prepared for practice upon graduation."
Adler also lauded the school's "very strong" legal research, writing
and analysis program, which begins with the first-year Legal Methods
course that teaches students to think, read, research, write, speak,
and problem-solve like a lawyer. The emphasis on developing practical
skills continues through the College's upper-division curriculum and
is embodied in clinical and pro bono opportunities, simulations,
advanced document drafting classes, interdisciplinary research
centers, and moot court and competition teams, among others, he said.
"At a time when some law schools are under attack for not teaching
students how to practice law and others are being criticized for
moving in the direction of becoming 'trade schools,' our curriculum is
designed to provide students with a carefully structured balance of
substance and skills. Based on these recent recognitions and results,
we believe we are moving in the right direction," Adler said.
This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more
information, visit http://www.newswise.com.
SOURCE University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
-0- 03/14/2014
/CONTACT: Barry Scholl, external relations, S.J. Quinney College of Law - office 801-581-4640, barry.scholl@law.utah.edu; Dana Wilson, director of marketing, S.J. Quinney College of Law - office 801-581-8711, cell 801-231-0139, dana.wilson@law.utah.edu; Annalisa Purser, communications specialist, University of Utah Communications Office - office 801-581-7295, cell 435-232-0312, annalisa.purser@utah.edu
CO: University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
ST: Utah
IN: EDU HED
SU: LAW
PRN
-- DC83109 --
0000 03/14/2014 12:00:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
