Legal Practice...and Beyond.
Greetings from Lubbock, Texas, the birthplace of Buddy Holly!
With the opening of the new Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, Texas, our Legal Practice faculty celebrated the legacy of Buddy Holly this year. Just as Buddy inspired an untold number of artists and musicians with his pioneering sound, he inspires our group of Legal Practice Professors to maintain a pioneering program in Legal Research and Writing.
In 2001, the school hired Professor Nancy Soonpaa, who reengineered the program to encourage professional autonomy for the Legal Practice faculty and to refine its comprehensive curriculum, which includes client counseling and ADR skills in addition to legal research, office memos, trial briefs, and appellate briefs. Those developments paved the way for growth and change. In 2014, under the leadership of former Dean Darby Dickerson, our Legal Practice faculty members attained full, tenure-track positions with equal pay, equal compensation for academic scholarship, and equal representation at faculty meetings.
Today, everything we do here in our program is to encourage confidence among our students and to train them to become the best legal advocates in the country. We do this through our innovative teaching in the classroom and our top-ranked national advocacy program, which boasts more than thirty national teams a year. We also do this through our own personal endeavors, whether it is writing a novel, serving as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, publishing law review articles in top-ranked journals, or arguing real cases in courts of appeals. In other words, just as Buddy Holly before us, we “go beyond” the traditional expectations. Read on to view some of the amazing accomplishments of our programs and students. And please feel free to reach out to us at any time. We'd love to hear from you.
Sincerely yours,
The Legal Practice Faculty at Texas Tech University School of Law
TTU Student Wins Scribes Brief-Writing Award
Brooke Bohlen, a 2020 graduate of Texas Tech Law, won the 2021 Scribes Brief-Writing Award. The American Society of Legal Writers gives the award each year to the best student-written brief, drawing from a select pool of “best briefs” from all national moot court competitions. It will present the award to Brooke at the Scribes annual CLE. Brooke has spent the past year clerking for the Honorable Rebeca A. Huddle of the Supreme Court of Texas and now works as a commercial litigation associate in the San Antonio office of a prominent national law firm.
Click here to read Brooke's brief.
TTU Student Wins Baylor Law's Paper Chase Legal Writing Competition
Avery Rios, a 2021 graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law, won the Paper Chase Legal Writing Competition, organized by Baylor Law School and the Texas Young Lawyers Association. Her winning memo focused on a circuit split over the government's ability to use a defendant's post-arrest, pre-Miranda silence in its substantive case-in-chief. At Tech Law, Avery was the Executive Managing Editor on the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal, and her student comment, Divorce Destroys the Community, was published in the Spring of 2020. She was also a board member of the Board of Barristers, an executive vice president on the Student Bar Association, and a student attorney in the Caprock Regional Public Defender's Clinic. She is now an associate attorney and practices family law and criminal defense in Waco, Texas.
Banner Year For Advocacy Teams
Texas Tech's moot court and mock trial teams continued to shine on the national stage. The program saw seven of its teams advance to national championship rounds, including the New York City Bar's National Moot Court Competition, the ABA Arbitration Competition, and the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. The law school claimed the ABA NAAC crown—its fifth in the law school's history, and second since 2013. It also brought home that tournament's prestigious National Best Brief Award, one of five Best Briefs it won during the year. The program's successes resulted in a number-three year-end ranking in moot court by the Blakely Advocacy Institute, and a number-two ranking in the ABA Competitions Championship. This marks the fourth straight year Texas Tech has placed either first or second in the ABA ranking.
The Award for Excellence in Written Advocacy
In 2016, Adjunct Professor Brandon Beck and his wife, Jennifer, created an annual Award for Excellence in Written Advocacy, which they present (along with a monetary prize) to the year's best national-team moot court brief writer. The 2020 winner was Brooke Bohlen, who also won the prestigious 2021 Scribes Brief-Writing Award. Brooke has spent the past year clerking for the Honorable Rebeca A. Huddle of the Supreme Court of Texas and now works as a commercial litigation associate in the San Antonio office of a prominent national law firm.
The Coach Hunt 1L Appellate Brief Competition
In honor of Donald M. “Coach” Hunt, each year the Legal Practice Program determines the best 1L appellate brief. Texas Tech Law's beloved Coach Hunt—who dedicated himself to our advocacy program for 30+ years—was a highly respected appellate attorney in Texas and beyond. Naming the 1L writing competition after Coach Hunt was the quintessential way to keep his winning spirit alive at Texas Tech Law.
Each professor who teaches Legal Practice submits their top appellate briefs, and a distinguished group of Texas Tech Law alumni then score the briefs. The winner(s) receive a generous monetary award and are recognized at the law school's annual Honor & Awards Ceremony.
The 2021 winners of the Coach Hunt 1L Appellate Brief Competition were Addison May and Alejandro Tellez-Vasquez. Not surprisingly, both winning students now serve on a Law Review. And Addison, who is Professor Sherwin's teaching fellow this year, also serves as a brief writer for national moot court teams.
Our Writing Specialist, Dr. Natalie Tarenko
Dr. Natalie Tarenko, our law school writing specialist, puts on a series of writing workshops each semester that are open to all law students. These workshops dive deep into grammar, punctuation, and common errors in legal writing. Beyond the workshops, students can meet with Dr. Tarenko for additional insights or to work through problem areas in their legal writing. Dr. Tarenko also puts on entertaining programming for national punctuation and grammar days, with contests, prizes, and fun for all. Her contributions complement the Legal Practice curriculum, enriching the students' learning experiences.
Texas Tech University Pre-Law Academy
Developed in 2012-13 by Associate Dean Humphrey, the Texas Tech University Pre-Law Academy (PLA) provides undergraduate students at Texas Tech with a unique opportunity to learn about the competitive law school admissions process, the demands of law school, and the practice of law.
Students admitted into this prestigious summer program spend one summer session earning seven credit hours. In one course.
Taught by Associate Dean Humphrey (who also serves as the Director of the PLA), students learn to: write a legal memorandum, present an appellate argument, and negotiate effectively. Another course—taught by a Ph.D./J.D. professor in the Communication Studies department—focuses on argumentation and debate with a legal rhetoric spin. And finally, in the PLA seminar course, students learn about law-related topics from a myriad of practicing attorneys and judges.
This interdisciplinary summer program, which introduces undergraduate students to CREAC and beyond, continues to flourish under the leadership of Associate Dean Humphrey. And many students who have completed the Academy are following their dream of becoming a lawyer!
School of Law
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Address
Texas Tech University School of Law, 3311 18th Street, Lubbock, Texas 79409-0004 -
Phone
806.742.3791 -
Email
law@ttu.edu