LAWS 6619 Trial Team
This pass/fail course is designed for students selected to represent our school at regional and national trial competitions. Students will be required to dedicate a minimum of 127.5 hours, thus earning 3 academic credits, under the supervision of Prof. Van Dyke and Prof. Buszuwski. As there is no official seminar component, this course will not count for experiential learning credit pursuant to ABA standard 304. This course will involve a service component and a learning component. Students will be asked to dedicate 16 hours to teaching mock trial skills to middle school students through a program called Discovering Justice. Students will also prepare for one of two national competitions: the National Trial Competition (NTC), hosted by the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA), and the Student Trial Advocacy Competition hosted by the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Each of these competitions has a regional round in the winter and a national round in the spring for the teams that win in their respective final rounds at regionals.
Course overview
- Department
- Law
- School
- LAW
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Graduate
- Offered
- Every Spring
Course evaluations
- Course rating
- 4.89 / 5 · Excellent
- Instructor rating
- 4.94 / 5 · Excellent
- Terms evaluated
- 3
| Term | Instructor | Course overall | Instructor overall | Well organized | Clear learning objectives | Intellectually challenging | Helpful assignments | Applicable beyond course | Attendance necessary | Weekly effort | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2026 | Julie Buszuwski | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4–6 hrs/week | 6 of 7 |
| Spring 2026 | Steven Van Dyke | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4–6 hrs/week | 6 of 7 |
| Spring 2025 | Julie Buszuwski | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | — | 2 of 2 |
| Spring 2025 | Steven Van Dyke | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | — | 2 of 2 |
| Spring 2023 | Steven Van Dyke | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 7–9 hrs/week | 2 of 4 |