UA School of Law Team is Semi-Finalist in National Civil Trial Competition

Akron, Ohio, Nov. 29, 2005 — University of Akron law students brought home a Semi-Finalist Trophy from Loyola Law School's fourth annual National Civil Trial Competition recently held in Los Angeles.

Members of the Akron mock trial team included Michael Cody of Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Robert Good of Youngstown, Ohio; Aaron Howell of Canton, Ohio; and Josh Nanney of Clarksville, Tenn.

Sixteen law schools were selected to compete from more than 40 law school applicants. Competing schools included: Georgetown University Law Center, Harvard Law School, Loyola Law School Los Angeles, Northwestern University School of Law and Stetson University College of Law.

The students argued a legal malpractice case in which a former criminal defendant who was convicted of a crime sues the public defender who represented him because the public defender failed to argue that the police “planted a gun” on the defendant. The plaintiff's (former criminal defendant) conviction was overturned when the officer was arrested and later confessed to planting the gun. The law students argued both sides of the case, and role-played as parties and witnesses.

Since 1982, UA mock trial teams have won two national championships and have been runner-up seven times. During that same period, the law school dominated the sixth circuit regional competitions with 44 championships.

In their latest rankings, “National Jurist” and “Prelaw Insider” magazines rated UA's School of Law as the second “best value” juris doctor public school program in the United States, based on tuition, bar passage rates, employment rates, median grants, clinic slots and faculty-student ratio.

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