The American Bar Association (ABA) Law Student Division recently ranked South Texas College of Law Houston (STCL Houston) as No. 6 in the nation on its 2021 Competition Champions list.
The ABA created this annual ranking to recognize law schools that “go above and beyond to help prepare their students for practice.” The ABA compiles this elite list based on law schools’ performance in its four national practice skills competitions, including Arbitration, Negotiation, Client Counseling, and the National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Ranking criteria and point totals for the top teams can be found here.
Stetson University College of Law earned the top spot on the highly esteemed 2021 ranking.
“Our four competitions offer students an amazing opportunity to hone essential lawyering skills before they enter practice,” said Connie S. Smothermon, ABA Competitions Committee co-chair and director of competitions and externships at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. “Through consistent participation and success in ABA competitions, these law schools display especially well-rounded practical skills training programs. We are thrilled to recognize these schools through the Competitions Championship.”
During the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 1,300 students from 180 law schools virtually participated in one or more of the competitions.
“The ABA student competitions are a significant component of our skills curriculum,” said Debra Berman, director of STCL Houston’s Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution — the focal point for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) at Houston’s oldest law school. “These competitions provide our students with an opportunity for hands-on skills training in a variety of dispute resolution processes.”
Over the past nine years, STCL Houston’s student ADR teams have won 20 national or international ADR championships — including its first entirely virtual title in 2020.
Under the leadership of Rob Galloway, director of Advocacy, STCL Houston students won three national advocacy championships — and the law school’s 136th overall — in the first three months of 2021, alone. With this win, STCL Houston extended its dominance in advocacy competition — enjoying more than twice as many national championships as any other law school in the country.
The 2021 top 10 ABA competition law schools by total points include:
- Stetson University College of Law
- Texas Tech University School of Law
- Fordham University School of Law
- Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law
- University of Oklahoma School of Law
- South Texas College of Law Houston
- William and Mary Law School
- Michigan State University College of Law
- Campbell University-Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law
- Brooklyn Law School
For more information on STCL Houston’s nationally acclaimed Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution and Advocacy program, please visit https://www.stcl.edu/academics/center-for-conflict-resolution/ and https://www.stcl.edu/academics/advocacy-program/, respectively.
To learn more about the ABA Law Student Division and its competitions, visit abaforlawstudents.com/.
