Media, Law & Policy

College of Law welcomes regional National Trial Competition teams

Wednesday, February 3, 2010, By Jaclyn D. Grosso

The Syracuse University College of Law is welcoming student teams from eight New York state law schools to compete in the National Trial Competition (NTC) Region II championship Feb. 5-7. The events will be held at the Onondaga County Courthouse and will engage faculty, students and alumni throughout the competition. The top two Region II teams will advance to the national finals in Texas next month.

“This competition was developed to train future lawyers in the art of advocacy and to involve the local bar to participate by evaluating the competition,” says Joanne Van Dyke L’87, who is the SU team coach and a member of the 2010 NTC Regional Committee. “We hope this has been a helpful learning experience for students who participate. The students are not only taught the art of advocacy but respect for the court, opposing counsel and the system in general.”

The competition was created to develop methods and materials for teaching trial advocacy and litigation-related skills to students all over the country, thus contributing to the development of an adequately trained, professionally responsible trial bar to better serve the needs of justice in the United States.