The Drake First-Year Trial Practicum
Russell E. Lovell, II
Professor of Law
Drake University Law School

1. The First-Year Trial Practicum: So Fundamental, Yet So Revolutionary
   1. The Drake Law School's "Lawyering from Day One" mission is reflected an experiential education pyramid: observation-simulation-participation.
   2. Experiential learning begins with Drake's First-Year Trial Practicum, where every student observes an actual jury trial in the Spring Semester of the first year - from jury selection through jury verdict - in an educational setting that includes small group discussions led by clinical faculty, seasoned judges, and veteran attorneys with lectures and practice panels that focus on the key legal and procedural issues and on the litigation strategies and techniques of the lawyers trying the case.
      1. The Trial Practicum is not a moot court or mock trial experience. The case observed is an actual jury trial.
      2. Conceptually, it may be helpful to think of the Trial Practicum as the laboratory component to the First-year classroom.
   3. The Law School’s excellent relationship with the bench and bar has been critical to success. Working with Chief Judge Arthur Gamble, we have had the complete support of the Iowa trial judges of the Fifth Judicial District. The Neal and Bea Smith Law Center's wonderful court room has enabled us to bring actual trials from the Polk County Court House in Des Moines to the Drake campus.

2. The Trial Practicum: The Logistics
   1. Screening of Cases.
      The week of the trial, and all its accompanying programming, represents only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the preparation and planning that goes into each Trial Practicum. Undoubtedly, the greatest challenge is identifying cases that will actually go to trial, that can be tried within one week’s time, that can be tried at the Law School’s on campus court room with the consent of the litigants and counsel, and that are educationally valuable. Since more than ninety percent of cases settle, often on the court house steps, we have screened approximately 150 cases each year, in order to identify the case to be included and several backup cases.
   2. The Trial Practicum is a week-long, five-day experience.
      The one-week time commitment enables us to include complex cases and enables students to observe the entire process from jury selection to closing arguments to verdict. The Trial Practicum not only brings to life the subject matter of several of the first-year courses, but it also creates a shared foundation for Evidence and other upper-level litigation-related courses, as well. Although ungraded, attendance is required of every first-year student.
   3. Debriefing of Jurors, Attorneys, and Judge.
      For many students, the highlights of each Practicum have been the debriefing sessions conducted after the conclusion of the trial. The first is held with the lawyers who actually tried the case; the second is with the jurors who decided the case. These sessions have enabled students and faculty to question the lawyers as to their strategies and to inquire of the jurors as to the rationale for their decision and the effectiveness of the lawyer's presentations.
   4. Small Group Discussions.
      Each year fifteen or so lawyers have volunteered a week of billable hours to serve as small group discussion leaders and practice panelists. The central and collaborative role the Trial Practicum design affords judges and lawyers in the educational experience is unquestionably responsible in significant part for the program’s success. This volunteerism has meant the Trial Practicum has been incredibly low budget, making it a feasible curricular innovation at every law school.

3. Learning Theory

   The First-Year Trial Practicum teaches students about the trial as a story, about the judicial process and the responsibility of jurors in the decision-making process, about lawyers and effective advocacy, and much more. It introduces students to law in action in a way that no textbook can ever capture, to lawyers and lawyering, and to fundamental values of civility, professionalism and public service. The First-Year Trial Practicum also represents a measured response to the indictment, popularized in the movie Patch Adams, that the first year of professional school education often is too detached from the patients or clients whom the students hope to eventually serve.