#1 in Trial Advocacy, #3 in Legal Writing
Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
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The 2011 U.S. News & World Report has again ranked Stetson University College of Law first in the nation among law schools for its outstanding trial advocacy program. U.S. News also ranked Stetson Law third out of 200 law schools for legal writing.
Stetson has consistently ranked at the top for its trial advocacy program since the U.S. News rankings began in 1995. Since the legal writing ranking started, Stetson has always placed among the top six programs in the country.
“When you ask attorneys what they value in law graduates —and what skills attorneys need to serve clients effectively —the ability to communicate well both orally and in writing are almost always at the top of the list,” said law dean Darby Dickerson. “This is one reason I am proud that Stetson emphasizes skills training and has been recognized for excellence in that area.”
“Stetson stands for the idea that advocacy is taught in law school every day, in every class, in every question posed and answer given,” said Professor Charles H. Rose III, director of Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Advocacy. “The accomplishments of our advocacy programs, and more importantly, of our students, reflect our commitment to not only teaching knowledge of the law, but the ability to use it on behalf of others. This commitment resides at the core of what it means to be a Stetson advocate — competent, compassionate and professional.”
Stetson Law students most recently won the National Trial Competition in March. Next month, Stetson Law teaches its Method of Advocacy at the Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills program for law practitioners and professors May 26 –28 in Gulfport, Fla. Stetson also provides a free online Advocacy Resource Center as a resource for public service attorneys and other attorneys who work on behalf of the public good. To access Stetson’s Advocacy Resource Center, visit http://www.law.stetson.edu/ARC/.
“These rankings reflect the dedication of our professors to preparing our students to be excellent legal communicators and thinkers and to developing the legal writing discipline,” said Professor Kirsten K. Davis, Director of Legal Research and Writing. In the legal writing field, Stetson sponsors regular webinars on legal writing topics for professors who teach in that area. “We’ve engaged over 150 faculty from around the country in discussions about important issues in legal writing, including upper-level writing courses and legal writing scholarship. We look forward to serving the national legal writing community by hosting future webinars,” Davis said.
Post date: April 15, 2010
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580