SMU Law - Board of Advocates

Interscholastic competitions (“off-campus”) are the highlight of the BOA’s offerings. The BOA registers, organizes, helps prepare, and sends over forty students each semester across the country and around the world to compete against other law schools in mock trial, moot court, arbitration, client counseling, and negotiation competitions.

The Dean of the Dedman School of Law fully sponsors these teams and supports them as ambassadors to the other law schools—team members represent the school’s high standards for academic and personal excellence to all the other competing schools. The teams are coached by either practicing attorneys from the Dallas area or SMU law faculty, both of which provide students with the opportunity to gain in-depth advocacy experience.

The Fall 2009 Competitions SMU participated in are:

Moot Court:
National Criminal Procedure Moot Court
Thomas Tang Moot Court
National Moot Court
National Entertainment Law Moot Court 
John Marshall IT Moot Court
Jessup International Moot Court
Vis International Moot Court

Mock Trial:
ABA Labor & Employment Mock Trial
NTAC
San Diego Defense Lawyers Mock Trial 
White Collar Crime (Georgetown) Mock Trial 
Lone Star Mock Trial

Negotiations:
ABA Negotiations Competition.

This Spring SMU plans to participate in the following competitions:

Moot Court:
Evan A Evans Constitutional Law
Duberstein
ABA National Appellate Advocacy
Wagner Labor and Employment
Hispanic National Bar Association
National Moot Court Championship

Mock Trial:
AAJ
NTC

Client Counseling:
ABA Client Counseling Competition


Questions or comments? Please contact Jamie Jackman, the Interscholastic Chair at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

How Do I Get Involved?  Try Out for a Team!

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The BOA holds two major and two minor tryout sessions annually.  The tryouts consist of five to ten minute oral advocacy presentations to the coaches.  Also, the BOA hosts an on-campus competition, the Fall Negotiations Competition, that serves as the tryouts for that team.

Who may try out? Tryouts are open to any non-first-year law students. 

Where do I get detailed tryout information? As an SMU law student registered with the BOA site, you may get more information on the How to Try Out page.  The How to Try Out page will say when the sign-up sheet will be open. All of the sign-ups close four days before the actual tryout to give coaches time to review your application, resume, and writing sample.  All of the necessary documents, forms, and instructions for trying out, including instructions on how to prepare for a particular tryout, are available on the How to Try Out page when the sign-ups open.