Baylor Law Announces Law Schools Participating in Top Gun XIII

WACO, Texas -

Law students from the best trial advocacy programs in the country will travel to Waco June 1-5 to take part in Baylor Law’s thirteenth annual National Top Gun Mock Trial Competition. The invitation-only, winner-takes-all contest is the nation's most prestigious and intense mock trial competition.

Top Gun XIII is unlike any other mock trial competition. The competition is limited to just 16 law schools with only one student, instead of the typical two representing each school. Most distinctively, participants will not receive the case details they will argue until a mere 24 hours before the competition begins, and one winner will take home the $10,000.00 prize.

Top Gun XIII is generously sponsored by MG+M The Law Firm, a national litigation and trial-focused firm with more than 100 trial-tested attorneys across its 13 offices. Representatives from MG+M will be on-site during the competition in June to witness first-hand the advocacy skills of the 16 most accomplished trial advocacy students in the country. Baylor Law, as the organizing institution, does not field a team. The student advocates that will represent their law schools will be announced in May.

Schools participating in Top Gun XIII are:
 

• American University Washington College of Law
• Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law
• Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law
• Fordham University School of Law
• Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
• Quinnipiac University School of Law
• Samford University Cumberland School of Law
• Stetson University College of Law
• South Texas College of Law Houston
• Temple University Beasley School of Law
• UCLA School of Law
• University of California Berkeley School of Law
• University of Denver Sturm College of Law
• University of Georgia School of Law
• University of South Carolina School of Law

"Every year, we strive to provide a problem that challenges the best mock trial competitors in the country," said Robert Little, Baylor Law's Director of Advocacy Programs. "Top Gun XIII gives student advocates the chance to face the very best of their peers in the courtroom after having just twenty-four hours to analyze a detailed and complicated case file and prepare that case for trial."

“We are especially excited this year about MG+M The Law Firm, sponsoring Top Gun for the first time,” Little added. “MG+M focuses on trying cases and producing trial lawyers, and they are coming to Top Gun to watch some of the best trial advocacy schools and students from around the country compete.”

Top Gun XIII kicks off the evening of Wednesday, June 1, when competitors attend orientation and a welcome dinner. Early Thursday morning, competitors will receive their case files. Preliminary rounds start on Friday morning and are held throughout the day on Friday and Saturday. The semifinal round will be held at 9 a.m. Sunday. The 'title match,' the final round of Top Gun XIII, will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 5, and will be streamed live at https://www.baylor.edu/law/live.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ed Nelson, Director of Marketing & Communications
EMAIL: Ed_Nelson@Baylor.edu 
PHONE: 254-710-6681
 

ABOUT BAYLOR LAW 
Established in 1857, Baylor Law was one of the first law schools in Texas and one of the first west of the Mississippi River. Today, the school has more than 7,600 living alumni. Accredited by the American Bar Association and a member of the Association of American Law Schools, Baylor Law has a record of producing outstanding lawyers, many of whom decide upon a career in public service. Baylor Law boasts among its notable alumni two governors, members or former members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, two former directors of the FBI, U.S. ambassadors, federal judges, justices of the Texas Supreme Court, and members of the Texas Legislature. In its law specialties rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Baylor Law’s trial advocacy program as among the best in the nation at No. 2. The National Jurist ranks Baylor Law as one of the “Best School for Practical Training” and No. 4 in the nation in its most recent “Best Law School Facilities” listing. Business Insider places Baylor Law among the top 50 law schools in the nation. Baylor Law School received the 2015 American Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award, making it only the third law school in the nation to be honored with the award since its inception in 1984. Learn more at baylor.edu/law

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more at baylor.edu