In September 2024, law students from all 10 Texas law schools came together for three days at the Harris County Civil Courthouse in Houston to crown one “Best in Texas.”
Conceived through a partnership between the advocacy directors of the state’s law schools and the Texas chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates (TEX-ABOTA), the Best in Texas Voir Dire Competition is a one-of-a-kind mock trial tournament that focuses on the undertaught art of jury selection.
After four preliminary rounds, four semifinalists were announced: Baylor University School of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston, and the University of Texas School of Law. Baylor prevailed over the University of Texas in the finals to claim the coveted Dicky Grigg trophy. The University of Texas won the tournament’s Civility Award, as voted by the student participants.
The competition focuses on jury selection, which is at the heart of TEX-ABOTA’s commitment to protect and strengthen our Seventh Amendment rights. Over 150 jurors participated in Friday’s preliminary rounds, more than 225 in Saturday’s preliminary rounds, and semifinal and final rounds enjoyed a full complement of 25 jurors in each.
Individually, Morgan Bates from the University of Texas won the Best Opening Statement Award, and Texas Tech University School of Law’s Gage Wiley and Baylor’s Reagan Conner won the Most Professional Advocate Award, as voted on by the ABOTA-member lawyers and judges. Baylor’s Christian Parker won the Best Voir Dire trophy.
Best in Texas 2024 was a huge success thanks to the hard work of the Best in Texas Committee, led by Chair Don Kidd of Houston, the Texas law school representatives, the American Society of Trial Consultants, and Caliber Video Productions. Planning is underway for the 2025 competition, which will take place September 18-21 in Lubbock.
For more information about TEX-ABOTA, go to tex-abota.org.
Les Hatch is judge of the 237th District Court in Lubbock County and served as vice chair of the 2024 Best in Texas Competition.
