After time off, the Saint Xavier University’s Pre-Law Association has returned in full force. The organization had been disbanded due to a lack of camaraderie.
According to the association’s newest President, Rachael Norris, “The organization stopped for a while because the people who were running it did not get along very well and then they graduated.”
The association made its return last year when History and Political science faculty member, Matthew Costello reached out to 142 pre-law students to try the get the organization reinstated for the spring semester of 2017.
“We never meant for the organization to fade away in the first place. That was a result of students graduating, and not having an active set of students to take their place. Letting things rest for a year, taking a hiatus from activity, merely gave things a chance to rests, and once that was done, we got it moving again.
There was no real plan to let it stop, and the intent to keep it going was always there. Now we have some very active leadership who is (hopefully) grooming the next wave of leaders to take over when they graduate.” stated Costello.
Out of the 142 students asked to participate Norris said, “Eight people showed up and four of us volunteered to be board members.” With enough members, they could get the club up and running.
The association has created a mock trial team, “The mock trial team is a class that we got started again to run this fall and next spring it fell apart for lack of enrollment in the past and we got it running again through a lot of advertisement over the spring semester.” said Norris.
The team practices their trial skills by competing amongst each other in mock trials at the Shannon Center. They also compete with other universities.
Last month Pre-Law association members, competed in their first scrimmage of the semester. The event took place at the Richard J. Daley Center where Saint Xavier University took on their first competitors DePaul University. They were judged by Judge Lynch and attorney Jim Pullos.
Unfortunately, SXU didn’t win their first mock trial but Norris says it’s always a close call when competing amongst each other. “We lost the scrimmage against DePaul but not by much and when competing against each other we have all been winning or losing within a few points of each other.”
The team participates in these matches to prepare themselves for the real competition in February. They will be holding more scrimmages later this semester and will be competing again in the spring of 2018.
According to the association’s mission page it’s all about having fun and learning, “We want to help students get the help they need to pursue a legal career and have fun while we do it.
Our goal is to get a great group of students together so we can learn from one another and to chill and be real.”
Norris said, “My favorite part of having the Mock Trials is having fun with a great group of students. We are all going into the same career path.
It is great to be able to relate to each other at our meetings and talk about our future, as well as being able to practice what it will be like to be a trial Lawyer.”
For more information on the Pre-Law Association you can contact Norris at norris.r01@mymail.sxu.edu or Professor Costello at Costello@sxu.edu.
Shadia Judeh
News Reporter