LSU law students got a taste of how it feels to make a first impression in front of a jury, a critical part of winning a trial.
The Paul M. Herbert Law Center hosted an Opening Statement competition Tuesday night. The competition was put on by the Law School Board of Advocates and was open to any second-year law students wanting to experience what it is like to be in court.
There were a total of 55 competitors who were on either the defense or prosecution side of a case. Each student gave an opening statement before a panel of judges.
“The opening statement competition is our way to get the second year students’ feet wet and give them a taste of what’s to come,” said President of the Board of Advocates Sohil Sharedalal.
These mock trial competitions are common at the LSU Law School. Competitions like the opening statement competition have been going on for many decades, and for good reason. They give law students a taste of what it is like to be in a real trial.
“An opening statement can be very crucial,” Sharedalal said. “It’s your first impression on a jury. If you lose jurors starting from the opening statement, and they just don’t like you, it’s going to be hard to win them over regardless of what you have for the rest of the case.”
A typical opening statement lasts 20 minutes to an hour in real criminal cases, but the competitors were constrained to seven minutes to save time.
LSU Law students Taylor Ashworth and Devin Jones won the competition and will be given a spot on the Board of Advocates for their third year of Law School.
The judge panel for the final round was made up of the Director of the Board of Advocates, as well as coaches for other Trial Advocacy teams. These coaches will host tryouts at a later date to pick students to compete in other prestigious competitions around the country.
“If [the judges] like you, they’re going to remember that when they see you in tryouts,” Sharedalal said.
Many law students knew about the benefits of participating in this contest since 55 students signed up and participated in the preliminary round Monday night.
“I think it’s really neat because there were 55 competitors,” said Taylor Ashworth, the winner for her prosecution opening statement.”I think that shows how interested the class is and how interested we all are in the Advocacy Program.”
