Category: Student Life

The Law School hosted the final round of the 2013 Thad T. Hutcheson 1L Moot Court Competition on April 15, 2013, in the Eidman Courtroom. Finalists Steven Ort and Chandler Raine argued before a venerable panel of jurists including U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel; Justice Patricia Alvarez of Texas’s Fourth Court of Appeals; Justice Scott Field of Texas’s Third Court of Appeals; Professor Jennifer Laurin of the Law School; and Thomas T. Hutcheson, a Winstead PC shareholder and son of the lawyer for whom the competition is named. In a split decision, Steven Ort emerged as the champion.

The University of Texas School of Law has won the 40th Annual Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition. To seal its victory, the Law School’s team of Colleen Bloss, ’13, and Yingying Zeng, ’14, defeated the University of Pennsylvania Law School on April 19, 2013, in the final round of competition in Washington, D.C. This prestigious and rigorous competition is sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). The AIPLA is the premier professional development organization for intellectual property lawyers in the country.

On Monday, April 22, UT lit the Tower orange in honor of the Law School’s 2012-2013 national championship teams. Two intramural teams have won national championships already this year, and a third has won a regional championship and will advance to compete for a national championship.

The University of Texas School of Law defeated South Texas College of Law on March 17, 2013, in the final round of the Southern Regional component of the Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court. This competition is sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), a professional development organization for intellectual property lawyers. The Southern Regional, held this year in the federal courthouse in Houston, was hosted by members of the local AIPLA chapter.

The University of Texas School of Law’s interscholastic team has won the regional round of the American Association for Justice’s Student Trial Advocacy Competition, and will compete for a national championship in the competition in New Orleans, Louisiana, in April.

The Law School’s Interscholastic Mock Trial Team has won the national championship in the 2013 John L. Costello National Criminal Law Trial Advocacy Competition. The law students who won the national championship are advocates Will Clark and Maryssa Simpson; witness Alex Hughes; and alternate Brandan Montminy, all third-year students. This is the second time in three years the UT Law Interscholastic Team has won the Costello competition. The Law School team also won in 2011.

The Longhorn Network recently produced a short video about the Law School's Pro Bono program, and students who have taken a pledge to carry out pro bono legal work.

This academic year, the Law School has formed strong interscholastic teams that will devote much of their winter break to preparing for five moot court competitions under the auspices of The David J. Beck Center for Legal Research, Writing, and Appellate Advocacy. The new Beck Center was launched last spring with support from David J. Beck, ’65, life trustee of the Law School Foundation and founder of Houston litigation boutique Beck, Redden & Secrest LLP.

Six students have been selected to serve as Public Service Scholars for the 2012–2013 year with the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the University of Texas School of Law.

In celebration of National Pro Bono Week (October 21–27, 2012), the UT Law Pro Bono Program is pleased to announce that third-year student Megan Sheffield has been selected to serve as a Pro Bono Scholar for the 2012–2013 academic year. The Pro Bono Scholars Program provides scholarships to second- and third-year students who commit to working with the UT Law Pro Bono Program a minimum of three hundred hours during the academic year. The scholars plan and implement pro bono projects and conduct research and outreach that furthers the mission of the program.

On January 6–11, 2013, the Pro Bono Program will take thirty students as well as several faculty members to the Texas Rio Grande Valley during the second week of January. This will be Pro Bono in January’s fourth year in the Valley. This year the Pro Bono Program is partnering with the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin to organize clinics in the San Juan area to assist pro se youth to petition for relief under the recently launched Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. At the clinics, students and volunteer attorneys will help high-school DACA petitioners (aka “DREAMers”) complete forms and compile documents to file with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In recognition of National Pro Bono Week (October 21–27, 2012), the UT Law Pro Bono Program celebrates law students’ volunteer efforts in underserved areas of Texas through Texas RioGrande Legal Aid’s Rural Outreach Initiative. Over the 2011–2012 school year, fourteen students assisted TRLA with the project. This fall nine students have volunteered, and students will also have the opportunity to work on the project in the spring.