University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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School of Law Receives Gumpert Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy In the classroom and the courtroom, the School of Law offers students comprehensive hands-on program of trial advocacy and clinical experience. Each week students perform exercises that cover every aspect of a trial, from jury selection through closing arguments. For these efforts, the UT law school has received the 1991 Emil Gumpert Award for excellence in teaching trial advocacy. The award is presented annually to a U.S. or Canadian law school with programs in trial advocacy worthy of special recognition. “The international award, which carries a $25,000 prize, was presented to the law school on Sept. 20 by the American College of Trial Lawyers. Sixteen years ago. Professor Pat Hazel began teaching 24 law students how to try a case before a jury. His trial tactics course has grown and today more than 200 students a year pass directly or indirectly through Hazel’s hands. Hazel has single-handedly-created a modern trial advocacy program.” said Mark G. Yudof. dean of the School of Law. “He has built this program to the point where it is the single most desired offering in our curriculum. More students are influenced by Hazel than is true of any other member of this faculty.” Last year, Hazel received the $5,000 national Richard S. Jacobson Award given by the Roscoe Pound Foundation for excellence in teaching the skills and art of trial advocacy. The basic instruction in trial advocacy at Texas is taught in two courses — Principles (a traditional classroom course) and Skills (which meets in a courtroom in the law building). In the Skills course. Hazel said, law students take a sample case and break it into the parts of a trial-learning direct examination, cross-examination, jury argument, introduction of exhibits and ex- pert witnesses. Each student is required to participate in every exercise either as a lawyer, witness, court reporter or jury member. All exercises are videotaped and critiqued by an instructor or visiting lawyer. The last six weeks of the semester are devoted to mock trials. Topics include child custody, will contest, sexual assault, criminal assault, libel and slander, pharmacy malpractice, medical mal- practice, civil fraud, products liability and worker’s compensation. To prepare for their mock trials. Skills students are allowed to depose adverse witnesses and parties. They may also interview witnesses favorable to their client. Whenever possible, the depositions are taken and transcribed at a court-reporting school by students training to be court reporters. Skills students try their cases before a jury composed of local high school students, and a visiting lawyer or judge presides over the mock trial. Volunteer instructors and judges are the cornerstone of Skills and Principles, said Ha- zel. We teach students how to try a lawsuit no matter what kind of case it is,” Hazel said. Trial skills are the same for any kind of law. Instead ol leaving the learning of skills to the law firms, we teach students what they will need to practice,” he said. In addition, Hazel has helped develop a nine-day Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, totaling 70 hours of lecture, demonstration and practice. Originally designed for practicing attorneys as part of their legal education, law students are now allowed to fill 32 of the available seats. The program, which is conducted in May, brings in distinguished lawyers and judges from all over th U.S. to serve as faculty for the course. All participants in the intensive trial program perform four times each day in a format similar to Skills. Each performance is criti qued and two performances a day are videotaped and observed. Lectures and demon strations arc conducted each evening. The course culminates with mock trials at the Travis County Courthouse. One of the first students to take the trial advocacy classes in the mid-1970s was Austin attorney David Walter. He now teaches the Skills class on Monday nights. “We try and teach law students the step-by-step process of how a trial works,” said Walter, adding that taking the Skills course was the best decision he ever made in law school. Today, I serve as a judge on Monday nights, but the real reason I’m here is to make sure the students get up and try the case,” he said. Sometimes it’s hard to get up and do this, but I’m a firm believer that law students have to learn how to present their case in a manner that is understood whether it’s family law, criminal or personal injury, Walter said. 4 — Trial Advocacy

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Trial Advocacy — 5