Three of South Texas College of Law Houston’s most distinctive experiential learning programs were recognized in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools rankings, with perennial national powerhouse Trial Advocacy moving up to No. 3 in the country.
Dispute Resolution also advanced, to No. 15 in the country, and Legal Writing ranked No. 31.
“Our law school is well known for producing exceptional, well-qualified, and well-prepared attorneys,” said STCL Houston President and Dean Michael F. Barry. “We are pleased that Trial Advocacy, Dispute Resolution, and Legal Writing experts throughout legal education continue to recognize the strengths of these exceptional South Texas programs.”
STCL Houston has won 136 national advocacy championships, twice as many as any other law school. South Texas also has won the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Championship 15 times, more than any other law school in the country. South Texas is consistently ranked in the top 10 for trial advocacy by U.S. News & World Report, and last year the law school placed 6th on the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Student Division’s 2021 Competition Champions list.
The Advocacy Program just concluded its Eleventh Annual South Texas Mock Trial Challenge, an in-person mock trial competition in which teams from 42 law schools from around the nation participated. In addition, STCL Houston students and professors helped prepare alumnus Rick Morris ’91 to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 2, 2022 – efforts that led to the Supreme Court ruling 9-0 for Morris’ client.
South Texas’ Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program continues to receive national accolades as well. In the past decade, STCL Houston students have achieved 21 first-place national and international alternative dispute resolution wins. The law school, through the work of the Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution, was ranked in 2021 as a “Top Law School for ADR” by preLaw magazine.
Among its signature programs, the Frank Evans Center hosts an annual Energy Law Negotiation Competition and a national cross-school negotiation practicum that draws more than 1,000 students annually.
STCL Houston has won five first-place Best Brief awards in the American Society of Legal Writers’ Scribes competition — the most prestigious legal writing competition in the nation. No other law school has claimed this honor more than once. The law school’s Legal Research and Writing Program gained additional momentum in 2020 with the opening of the Legal Writing Center, which provides dedicated legal writing training to South Texas law students.
