Trial Magazine
Feature
Connecting With the Next Generation: STAC
February 2021How It Works
The Student Trial Advocacy Competition (STAC) is AAJ’s annual mock trial competition for law students. Created in 1977 as the National Student Advocacy Contest, students from around the country participate in regional competitions, with the winners of each region (typically 14) advancing to a national final. Every year, students argue a fact pattern based on a civil case. Topics have ranged from driverless cars to premises liability negligence.
The 2016 national champions from Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law in Philadelphia were the first all-female team to win STAC.
The 2013 national championship team from Notre Dame Law School at AAJ’s Annual Convention in San Francisco.
The Champions
The winning team receives complimentary travel, accommodations, and registration for AAJ’s annual convention, plus a scholarship prize donated by the Melvin M. Belli Society.
Get Involved
Attorneys and sitting judges volunteer to act as presiding judges and scorers for STAC. These volunteers engage students with the practice of law and the plaintiff bar.
Going Virtual
The 2021 STAC will be entirely virtual, with trials held on Zoom. Regional competitions are scheduled for March 4–7, and the national finals round will take place April 15–18. Attorneys interested in volunteering can visit www.justice.org/judgeforstac.
In 2016, the first all-female team (Drexel University School of Law in Philadelphia) won the national competition.
Each year
- 224 teams from approximately 150 U.S. law schools participate.
- The nearly 900 law students who compete become AAJ law student members.
- Over 25 AAJ members volunteer to coordinate regional competitions.
1,200
The number of volunteers—including trial lawyers and judges—who participated in 2019.
“AAJ’s STAC program is a perfect way to help the next generation of lawyers find their path forward. I am inspired by their hard work and dedication. STAC also gives dozens of attorney volunteers in each regional competition the opportunity to give something back.”
—Fred Schultz, STAC Committee cochair, Greene & Schultz, Bloomington, Ind.
