Litigation and Trial Advocacy Programs

My measure of which law schools seem to have active litigation programs is the ATLA (American Trial Lawyers Association) list of national mock trial competition participants. Their web page shows participants from 2000 to 2004. Here's what I learned:

A surprising number of schools never or hardly ever participate in the competition. They include:

Another bunch participate sometimes, but not routinely. They include:

A third group enters the competition regularly. They are:

And the elite group not only enters but at least sometimes wins at the regional level or higher. They are:

So what does this mean to you? If you really want to be hired as a trial lawyer, I would advise going to a school in that last group. If you know you want some litigation experience to be part of your legal education, but don't necessarily want to work exclusively as a litigator, look at the middle two lists. Use the first list only if you're sure that transactional work is in your future.

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