A prestigious $50,000 award was presented Friday to the James E. Rogers College of Law in front of an audience of more than 70 students, professors, lawyers and judges.
The American College of Trial Lawyers, an organization of trial lawyers from America and Canada, presented the Emil Gumpert Excellence in Trial Advocacy Award to the college.
The award honors the work and dedication of professor Thomas Mauet and the trial advocacy program he developed during his 25 years at the UA.
Mauet said the law school is one of the few small law schools that have won this award. "There's no other prize that comes close to it," Mauet said.
The ACTL is comprised of the top 1 percent of trial lawyers. Many of them were in attendance at the award ceremony.
"(It was) like a meeting of Nobel Prize winners," Mauet said.
The college is the last school that will receive the Emil Gumpert Award.
The ACTL is retiring the award this year.
According to David Scott, the president of ACTL, the mission of the award, which is to encourage law schools to teach trial advocacy programs, has been satisfied.
Scott, a lawyer in Ottawa, Canada, presented Dean Toni Massaro and Mauet with the award and a check for $50,000.
Mauet said the money was earmarked for the trial advocacy program in order to renovate the law school's trial courtroom by upgrading the electronics with new projectors and flat screen televisions.
Four of Mauet's students attended the ceremony to demonstrate what they do in their beginning trial advocacy class.
The students were given two days to prepare a case for Friday's presentation. The case came from Mauet's own textbook, "Materials for Trial Advocacy."
Mauet stood off to the side as the students led direct and cross-examinations of a witness.
After letting his students try out their questions, Mauet stepped in to provide tips and suggestions.
Just like in class, Mauet's teaching was informal and sometimes humorous.
After Charlie Babbitt, a third year law student, thought he finished bringing out the witness's background and establishing credibility, Mauet jumped in as a coach.
"Is that it for background here?" he asked.
Babbitt was unsure how to respond. He hesitated, and then said, "I think so," drawing laughter from the audience.
"Let's do it once again," Mauet said.
Mauet coached each of the four students in the same manner, inserting tips and comments to make the students' questions more effective.
"We're putting into practice all the content we get in class," said Missy McGary, a second year law student.
According to Babbitt, trial advocacy is a real strength of the law school.
Mauet attributes the college's successful trial advocacy program to the 15 adjuncts who volunteer to teach the classes.
"I don't know of any law school in the country that gets this kind of support from its adjuncts," Mauet said. "They make it possible."
This semester, the school had a large number of students wanting to take the class, and within two days, Massaro had found an adjunct to open a new section.
"We meet the students' demands," Mauet said.