Students who have completed their full-time first-year law school classes and are not on academic warning or probation are eligible for the tryouts held at the end of the fall semester. All students who are not on academic warning or probation are eligible to tryout at the end of the Spring semester.

Participants are chosen through a competitive selection process. Tryouts are held at the end of each semester to select teams for the following semester. Separate tryouts are held for moot court, mock trial, and ADR teams. The Director of Advocacy Programs will announce the date and time of each tryout in advance of the tryout by sending information regarding tryouts to all students by email, as well as posting the information on the school’s electronic calendar and including it in other announcement methods. Tryouts begin in the late afternoon or early evening and generally last into the late evening to accommodate all students who wish to be considered. Students will sign up for a tryout time on the Board of Advocates TWEN page.

• Moot Court Oralist: To be considered as an oralist for a moot court team, a student must present a ten-minute oral argument of his or her choice. A student may use an oral argument performed for a first-year writing class (such as a motion for summary judgment) or any other class of the student’s choice. A student may also use his or her arguments from previous intramural or interscholastic competitions.


• Moot Court Brief Writer: To be considered as a brief writer for a moot court team, a student must submit a persuasive writing sample to the Director of Advocacy Programs on or before the date oral tryouts begin. It is not necessary for a student who wishes only to be a brief writer to appear at tryouts. A student may submit an appellate brief or a motion for summary judgment the student wrote for a writing class. Alternatively, a student who has written a brief for a previous interscholastic moot court team may submit the brief he or she wrote for that competition.


• Mock Trial: To be considered for mock trial, a student must present either a ten-minute opening statement or a ten-minute closing argument of his or her choice. A student may use a fact pattern or opening/closing presented in a class, such as a first-year writing class, trial advocacy, or any other class involving simulated trials. A student may also use fact patterns from previous intramural or interscholastic competitions.


• ADR: To be considered for an Aggie Dispute Resolution team, a student will perform a negotiation with a partner assigned at the tryouts. The student will be given a general fact pattern a week in advance of the tryouts. At the tryout, each student will be assigned a party to represent, as well as a partner who will represent the opposing party. The pair will then be given a set of additional, confidential facts specific to their respective clients. After fifteen minutes for each student to review the new facts, the pair will perform a twenty-minute negotiation.

The Director of Advocacy Programs and a panel of current included coaches in that discipline (the “Selection Committee”) will judge each tryout. Selection will be based on the students’ skill level in advocacy at the tryout. For example, skills such as speaking ability, confidence, ability to answer questions, use of proper negotiation techniques, as applicable, will be evaluated. Students will necessarily be compared to other students trying out as only limited spots are available. The Selection Committee will also consider information provided by the student, such as competition experience and success (interscholastic and intramural), work experience, and classes taken in advocacy field.