News Source: Law
March 25, 2009 — A team from the University of Virginia School of Law won the National Black Law Students Association Mock Trial Competition, which concluded March 21 in Irvine, Calif., and other U.Va. students either won awards or earned positions in the organization's national leadership.The team of third-year law student Stephen Anthony and second-year law students Saira Karim, Erin Crowgey and Jordan McKay won association's Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition."BLSA Mock Trial was one of the most enriching experiences here at law school," Karim said. "Not only did I develop meaningful relationships with my teammates, but learning trial advocacy from experienced coaches and team members was a great learning experience. I would love to be a part of it again next year."First-year law student Melinda Hightower and third-year law student Kurt Davis were runners-up in the NBLSA International Negotiations Competition, and Karla Hardy was first runner-up for the NBLSA National Best Advocate Award in the mock trial competition."Participating in this year's national competition has been one of the highlights of my time at U.Va. Law," said Hardy, who competed in a field of 78.Last year, she was a member of a team that won the regional championship and advanced to nationals, but her team this year faced challenges, including replacing a member before the national finals."Despite the hurdles, we competed well at nationals," she said. "My teammates Erva Cockfield, Kara Akins, Suzanne Libby and Bobbie King are all extremely talented trial advocates, and we have learned so much working together."Hightower, who will serve as U.Va.'s Black Law Students Association president next year, will also serve on the association's national board as vice-chair. The students from the winning mock trial team won the regional championship Feb. 19 in Philadelphia to advance to the finals, where Anthony praised his teammates' performance."Throughout the competition, I saw their confidence grow, their comfort grow and the competitiveness grow — as a result, they carried us to the championship," said Anthony, who was the only team member with mock trial experience. "I will remember this experience and this team for a long time!"In the competition, the team is given a set of facts about a hypothetical case, and team members assume the role of prosecutors, witnesses or defense counsel.Their case at the national finals was an expansion of the case from the regional finals, which involved charges filed after a fictitious hazing incident at a college.
This story originally appeared on the U.Va. School of Law Web site.
Blogger Black Buzz says congratulations to the highly esteemed intelligent students from the University of Virginia (BLSA) for winning the National Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Competition held on March 21, 2009 in Irvine, California. The students from UVA won the competition because they were better prepared than their opponents and they simply worked harder to win the competition. The success of the BLSA students from the University of Virginia is also directly attributable to an outstanding exemplary world renowned Law School faculty which is second to none of the so-called elite Law Schools. The UVA BLSA students defeated BLSA students from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, St. Johns, University of Southern California and others.
I commend all BLSA students who participated in the annual Thurgood Marshall National Moot Court Competition and through your efforts, our country will continue to develop into a true representative participatory, egalitarian experiment in democratic governance. Perhaps we can look for and nurture a future President or Vice-President of the United States from the winning University of Virginia students and other students that participated in the Thurgood Marshall National Moot Court Competition.
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UVA is third nationally in the numbers of alumni who are chairpersons and managing partners at law firms nationwide.According to the Law Firms Yellow Book,which profiled more then 800 law firms around the nation,from all major cities and from all states except South Dakota. A suvey of 250 national law firms recent hiring decisions conducted by the national Law Journal found that University of Virginia School of Law graduates were the SECOND-MOST-favored group,with 97 of the surveyed firms hiring Virginia students. Virginia ranked fifth in the number of graduates hired by NLJ's TOP 250 firms,with 208. According to a 2005 study that updates the 2003,Leiter Report,a highly respected and comprehensive ranking of law school performance,the UVA's Law School is SECOND in overall sucess in placing graduates at top national firms. UVA graduation rate has been a consistent 99% for the last 35 years. The top job locations for classes of 2006,2007,and 2008 was D.C & New York. Managing Partners : UVA is third only to Harvard and NYU in the number of Alumni who are managing partners at law firms nationwide.Distinguised Alumni include : Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy '59, Sheldon Whitehouse '82 Evan Bayh'81; Sheila Jackson-Lee '75 Texas; Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano'83;F.B. I.Director'73 Robert Mueller
Robert Kennedy senior was also a 51 grad of UVA Law School and his son Robert Jr. was also a UVA Law grad. also note that Thurgood Marshall Jr. was a UVA Law grad and U.S.Senator John Warner'53. UVA Law grads on the U.S.Supreme Court are as follows: James Clark McReynolds,1884,and Stanley Forman Reed 1908. Elaine Jones was the first African-American female to graduate from UVA Law in 1970,and she is the past Director& General Counsel for the NAACP Legal- Defense Fund. UVA Law Weekly has won the American Bar Association's previous three Best Newspapers Awards in 2006,2007,and 2008.
UVA is tied with NYU in sixth place for the number of Grads that get hired as clerks at the U.S.Supreme Court. Harvard and Yale have over fifty percent of all the clerks hired. The hiring of clerks is a very competitive&Political process and the clerks actually participate in the hiring process. So if fifty percent of the clerks are from Harvard and Yale how can the present system of hiring clerks manintain and apperance of the fairness doctrine that these Jurist are supposed to ascribe to ? Only fool would think that thsee present clerks from Harvard &Yale would prefer a UVA grad over one of their fellow alumni. So how much weight does the clerks decisions to hire amount to ? These justices based on their own admissions are bias toward Harvard,Yale,Columbia,U.Chicago,
Standford,UVA & NYU. And the hiring of females for clerkships at the U.S. Supreme Court is atrocious. It is basically a "Good Old Boys Network " of white men+Uncle Thomas.
No, I didn't forget the most competent Jurist on the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg. This was President Clinton's greatest achievement the appointment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What a gutsy woman with tons of inesttinal fortitude. We need to have a National Award in her honor for she is a true pioneer.
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