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

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Trial Advocacy — 5

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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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Law School Debates School Financing Public school financing has spurred many debates, but speakers at a UT Law School symposium agreed that Texas is moving in the right direction. Legislators do deserve a pat on the back. They have moved way down the line since the ’70s,” said Nancy Frank, associate director of the Fxlucation Fxonomic Policy Center. “To solve these problems will take lime.” Numerous topics were discussed during Saturday’s symposium, entitled “Texas Public School Financing: Lessons in Law and Politics”, including the Edgewood vs. Kirby case and judicial requirements of the Legislature to fund public education. “We’re not sure where we’re going or how we are going to get there,” said Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro in his keynote address. “We arc here to reach a consensus that satisfies the court and satisfies the Legislature and a consensus which will give us quality education as Texans, Mauro said The school financing debate was sparked in 1989 when the Texas Supreme Court ruled that “glaring disparities” were present between Texas' wealthy and poor school districts. One year later, the court told the Legislature it must have a constitutional plan to fund state schools enacted by Sept. 1, 1991. The new school finance plan creates 180 county education districts, boundaries generally drawn along county lines, each of which will pay a property tax to be set by the state. Property-rich school districts must also give their excess tax revenue to poor districts so that per-student spending equals out. “There arc poor districts and rich districts, we must realize that,” said attorney David Richards. “It doesn’t make sense when one district spends $12,000 per student and another spends only $3,500 per student.” Richards represented the plaintiff in F.dgcwood vs. Kirby. Despite all the argument about the impact of education on children, these cases are tax arguments. This is basically a tax debate where people arc trying to be treated equal,” said Mark Yudof, dean of the School of Law. Speaking on the judicial funding requirements, Frank said Nobody is ever quite sure what they are doing. Maybe we haven’t done enough. Maybe we’ve done too much. Basically we are in a quandary.” Consolidation of school districts is perhaps the most difficult issue to face because nobody “wants to lose their school district,” Frank said. Currently, around 60 percent of all students are educated in schools financed below the state average. — Michael McCardel, Daily Texan Staff 6 — Public School Financing Debate