Class of 2009
"I’ve been blessed to get to know some really great people while in law school; people I hope will be lifelong friends and colleagues. The student body represents a variety of different personalities and backgrounds, but we share the common bond of having endured the tough (and funny!) aspects of law school together."
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LSU's campus is situated on more than 2,000 acres, and contains nearly 1,200 live-oak trees.
Advocacy Programs
Through its advocacy programs, the Law Center provides its students with ample opportunity to obtain and develop litigation skills. Several highly regarded programs and courses are offered to provide students with the skills and practical experience needed for successful client advocacy. In fact, LSU Law Center’s Moot Court program was ranked No. 12 nationally according to the University of Houston Law Center's Blakely Advocacy Institute, which ranked schools based on results from more than 60 different moot court competitions during the 2008-09 school year.
Based on its record in moot court competitions in 2008-09, LSU Law will be invited as one of the top 16 moot court programs in the country to the National Moot Court Championship in Houston to be held January 2010. LSU is the No. 12 program in the country. LSU is the only school from Louisiana and the Southeastern Conference to be invited to the competition.
The Moot Court/Trial Ad Program celebrated four first-place victories, five top individual honors, and record participation numbers during the 2008-09 academic year. And, in 2005-2006, Law Center teams won national championships in the International Criminal Court, the National Environmental Law, and the National Tax Moot Court Competitions.
Courses with an emphasis upon these skills, include Advanced Appellate Advocacy (5609), Advanced Appellate Advocacy Seminar (5813), Trial Advocacy (5608), Pre-Trial Litigation Practice (5881), Advanced Litigation Practice (5882), Advanced Trial and Evidence I and II (5826 and 5827), and Legal Negotiations (5822). Also offered is a series of lectures each year covering topics such as The Psychology of Litigation, Settlement Negotiations, Trial Strategy, and Demonstrative Evidence.
Vinson-Elkins Trial Advocacy Program
The Trial Advocacy Program is an intensive, three-day training session the week before classes begin in the third year similar to the programs produced by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and it features some of America’s outstanding trial lawyers and judges.
Moot Court Board
The Tullis Moot Court Competition is open to all 2L students. Those students who receive the highest cumulative score on their appellate brief and oral argument will be nominated as members. Membership on the Moot Court Board is an incentive to promote professional advocacy skills among the student body and provide a method of training in independent research, brief writing and oral advocacy. The Moot Court Board will support the skill of advocacy in a number of ways including assisting in practice oral arguments for freshman students, preparation of the following year Tullis Moot Court Competition problem and providing logistical support for other interschool moot court programs and competitions.
Trial Advocacy Board
Each year, LSU Law students participate in mock trial competitions at the Law Center and at law schools around the country. The Trial Advocacy Board organizes both the intraschool Ira S. Flory Trial Competition and the teams represent the Law Center in national and regional competitions. The Board is run by third year students who are selected to the Board because of their high achievement in the Ira S. Flory Trials and their work to advance trial advocacy at the Law Center through serving on or assisting with interschool competitions and other mock trial programs.
Interschool Competitions
Our students are actively involved in both trial and appellate advocacy competitions throughout the country. Competitions in which our students have participated in recent years include the Judge John R. Brown Admiralty, Conrad B. Duberstein Bankruptcy, First Amendment, and Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competitions; and the American Association of Justice Mock Trial Competition. Students are eligible for course credit for participating in these competitions.
Intraschool Competitions
The Robert Lee Tullis Moot Court Competition is an annual appellate intraschool competition for second year students. The problem for the competition is written by a member of the Law Center’s faculty and can cover almost any area of law. Participants write an appellate brief and argue the case before a panel of judges. The top ranked competitors form the following year’s Moot Court Board. The names of the final winning team of student-attorneys are inscribed on the Robert Lee Tullis Moot Court Competition plaque outside the David K. Robinson Courtroom in the Law Center. The Robert Lee Tullis Moot Court Competition was named in honor of the late dean emeritus of the Law Center. In addition to the Tullis Moot Court Competition, the students may participate in the Ira S. Flory Trial competition. This event is held each semester among second-and third-year law students. Students have the opportunity to participate in both a criminal and a civil trial. Ira S. Flory was a professor at the Law Center for 36 years. He taught many courses during his tenure, including Federal Procedure, Evidence, Bankruptcy and Negotiable Instruments.
Wex Malone American Inn of Court
The Wex Malone American Inn of Court, affiliated with the LSU Law Center, is one of the 175 chapters of the American Inns of Court nationwide. It is an organization of attorneys dedicated to improving professionalism in the bar. The movement was initiated by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger. The Malone Chapter includes many leading experienced attorneys and some of the most promising young lawyers. Student memberships are created each year at the Law Center, and a limited number of students are invited to participate in the Inn. Membership is limited to senior law students and continues until graduation from law school. Students are selected by the Trial Advocacy instructors based on their performance in the Trial Advocacy Program.
Student Bar Association
The SBA is the liaison between the law students and the law school administration. The association promotes and coordinates student activities within the Law Center and serves as an instructional medium for postgraduate bar association activities. The SBA comprises all students in the Law Center.
The Order of the Coif
Each year, the local chapter elects to membership from the highest 10 percent of the senior class those students who are deemed qualified. Election to The Order of the Coif is the highest honor a law student may receive. The Louisiana chapter of The Order of the Coif, a national honorary law fraternity, was established in 1942. Its purpose is to stimulate scholarly work of the highest order and foster and promote a high standard of professional conduct.
Louisiana Law Review
The Louisiana Law Review was established to encourage legal scholarship in the student body, act as an incentive to and provide a method of training in individual research, contribute to the development of the law by scholarly criticism and analysis, foster the study of civil and comparative law, and serve the bar of the state by comments on and discussion of current cases and legal problems. It is edited by a board of student editors, with faculty cooperation. The Law Review selects student editors by considering first-year academic performance and participation in an annual writing competition.
Michelle Renee’ Shamblin, a 2009 graduate and member of the Law Review, was awarded the 2009 Scribes Law-Review Award for her article, Silencing Chicken Little: Options for School Districts after "Parents Involved." She is the first student in the history of the Law Center to receive the national award.
