HOUSTON, TX — South Texas College of Law Houston (STCL Houston) has ranked as No. 6 in the nation on its 2021 Competition Champions list by the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Student Division.
The ABA made this annual ranking to acknowledge law schools that “go above and beyond to help prepare their students for practice.” The ABA arranges this list according to law schools’ performance in its four national practice skills competitions, including Arbitration, Negotiation, Client Counseling and the National Appellate Advocacy Competition.
The top spot on the highly esteemed 2021 ranking went to Stetson University College of Law.
“Our four competitions offer students an amazing opportunity to hone essential lawyering skills before they enter practice. 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,” said Connie S. Smothermon, ABA Competitions Committee co-chair and director of competitions and externships at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Throughout the 2020 - 2021 academic year, over 1,300 students from 180 law schools virtually took part in one or more of the competitions.
“The ABA student competitions are a significant component of our skills curriculum. These competitions provide our students with an opportunity for hands-on skills training in a variety of dispute resolution processes,” 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.
In the last nine years, STCL Houston’s student ADR teams have become a winner for 20 national or international ADR championships—including its first entirely virtual title in 2020.
Meanwhile, STCL Houston students, under the leadership of Rob Galloway, director of Advocacy, have won three national advocacy championships and the law school’s 136th overall in the first three months of 2021.
People can find ranking criteria and point totals for the top teams at https://abaforlawstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/20-21-Competitions-Championship-Points-System.pdf.
For more detailed information regarding STCL Houston’s nationally acclaimed Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution and Advocacy program, visit https://www.stcl.edu/academics/center-for-conflict-resolution/ and https://www.stcl.edu/academics/advocacy-program/.