Trial Advocacy has several components. Our litigation program, offered each spring, teaches students the basic skills of trial work in small seminar groups, where they receive intensive writing and simulation exercises. More advanced seminar courses also are available to further enhance students' trial skills in civil and criminal areas.
Students also can become members of the Student Trial Lawyers Association (STLA) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) Student Division. Student members may participate in several mock trial competitions held at various locations throughout the country. The impressive performance of our trial teams has repeatedly placed Georgia State University among the nations top 16 trial advocacy programs.
STLA has regularly participated in the National Invitational Tournament of Champions, winning the National Championship in 1994 and second place honors in 1992 and 1993. The STLA won fifth place in the tournament in 1995.
STLA participates annually in the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Tournament. College of Law teams finished sixth in the national competition in 1992; regional finalist in 1993; regional semifinalist in 1994; regional finalist in 1995; and ninth in national competition in 1997. STLA annually enters the American Bar Association Tournament; College of Law teams reached the regional semifinals in 1992, 1993,1995, 1997, and finished eighth in national competition in 1996.
STLA participates in several other local and national competitions. In 1994, a College of Law team won the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Tournament and one of our students was named best oralist. College of Law teams won the State of Georgia Intrastate Competition in 1997 and 1998, as well as reached the semifinals of the National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition in 1998 and 1999. was by a College of Law team won the first annual Judge William Daniel National Invitational Trial Competition in 1998 and again in 2006.
In a continuing effort to involve first-year students in the mock trial program, STLA awards a cash prize for the best mock trial closing argument based on the fact pattern of a first-year RWA problem.
