CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Arkansas Law Review
The Arkansas Law Review is a legal periodical published quarterly by the students of the School of Law in cooperation with the Arkansas Bar Association. Candidates for the Review are selected from the second and third year law classes by the Law Review editorial board on the basis of scholarship and writing ability.
The Review offers an excellent opportunity to those students with the ability and industry to do legal research and writing of a scholarly and practical nature. All material published in the Arkansas Law Review is edited by a student board of editors and much of it is written by students.
The Arkansas Law Review is sent to each member of the Arkansas Bar Association and to lawyers and law libraries in every state. Review articles and student writings have been relied on by Arkansas courts, courts in other jurisdictions, and legal scholars.
Board of Student Advocates
The Board of Student Advocates is a student organization that administers all intra-school and inter-school competitions.
Moot Court
Moot court is designed to afford training in the use of the law library, the analysis and solution of legal problems, the drafting of briefs, and the presentation of oral arguments. Each law student prepares a brief and gives an oral argument as part of the course in Legal Research and Writing II.
In addition, students in their second and third years are encouraged to compete in an intramural moot court competition. The final round of this competition is argued before a panel of distinguished judges and lawyers.
Arkansas students also compete in national moot court competitions. For example, each fall, students represent the University of Arkansas School of Law in the National Moot Court competition administered by the Bar Association of the City of New York. The students argue first at the regional level; the region includes all law schools in Arkansas, Ok-lahoma, and Texas. Ungraded credit may be awarded for participation in inter-school competitions. In 1994, a UA Law School moot court team won first place in the Vanderbilt First Amendment competition.
Trial Competitions
All students receive training in trial advocacy during their second or third years. Those interested may compete for the trial advocacy team to represent the school in regional and national competition. Ungraded credit may be awarded for participation in inter-school competitions.
Client Counseling Competition
The University of Arkansas School of Law also participates in the American Bar Association's Client Counseling Competition for law students.
In the Client Counseling Competition, teams of two law students interview an actor playing the role of a client. The law student teams have received only very general and incomplete information about the client and his or her problems. The students then use the client interview to discover the client's problems and provide preliminary legal advice. After the judges observe all teams interview the same actor/client, they make decisions as to which team handled the consultation most skillfully.
Both regional and national competitions are conducted.
Negotiations Competition
Teams representing the School of Law have competed in recent years in the American Bar Association's Negotiations Competition, which focuses on the ability to successfully represent a client's interest in a settlement negotiation with opposing counsel.