Interested in Leadership and Travel? Become a National Student Director

The Law Student Division needs three law students to act as national student directors for the division's three competitions: Negotiation, Client Counseling and National Appellate Advocacy. The directors are involved in planning and running the competitions, developing the competitions' problems, and recruiting participants, judges, bar associations and sponsors.

Jo Linda Johnson and her partner from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., won the regional Client Counseling Competition last year, and competed in the national championships held at the University of California School of Law in Los Angeles. "I felt strongly about how the competition was run-good and bad-and I thought this would be a great way to give input," she says.

This year Johnson is the national student director for the division's National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC). The NAAC is a moot court competition that Johnson describes as "extremely competitive."

Johnson-and the other two national student directors-travel to Chicago, Illinois, in the fall to meet with the subcommittees that run the competitions. They also attend the national finals for their competition to help see that things run smoothly.

Johnson enjoys the travel perk, but says the student director should expect to work hard at the competition's national finals. "Last year I worked 5 a.m. to midnight four days straight, but it was lots of fun," she says.

Victoria Wu, a third-year student at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, has been the national student director for the Law Student Division's Negotiation Competition for the past two years. She says her primary duty has been to travel to the ABA's Midyear Meeting, where the national competition is held. This year she went to Los Angeles; last year it was Nashville. Next year the meeting will be held in Dallas.

"Going to the meeting is great," she says. "You get to meet and talk to law students and coaches from all over."

Wu says the position is ideal for a law student who competed in debate in college and wants to get involved in the American Bar Association without making the time commitment that some of the other national positions require.

Kristi Kessler, a third-year student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law, was on her school's Client Counseling team last year, the team that won the national championship. This year she is the national student director for that competition. She helped draft the problems for the regional and national competitions.

Kessler says the subcommittee often turned to her when deciding on the competition's problems to find out what would be challenging for law students. It is not required of the national student director, but Kessler says she found it helpful to have competed in that competition last year.

Tempted? Interested in some travel and in meeting some of the finest law school advocates? The deadline for applying for these positions for the 1999-2000 school year is March 15, 1999. Applicants must submit an application form as well as a resume and a brief personal statement. The directors will be chosen in the spring.

For more information, or to get an application, call 312/988-5621

Lee Farbman
Lee Farbman, a third-year student at Northwestern University School of Law, is Student Lawyer's student editor.