The University of Montana School of Law

Third-Year Class Gift
_{Dateline: May 2012} 

The 2012 Third-Year Class Gift Drive was launched with a rousing start last night during a “pub trivia” contest in the Castles Center featuring Regents’ Professor J. Martin Burke as master of ceremonies.

This year’s Third-Year Class Gift is being made in honor of Brian Williams, a member of the Class of 2012 who perished in a tragic plane crash following his first year of school. (The Class’ donation will be made to the Brian Williams Scholarship). Brian’s family and friends were in attendance for the event, as were many first and second year students.

The ironically named third-year student team, “No [blanking] Way” placed first in the competition, but only after a petition was circulated to disqualify “Staff Infection,” the faculty/staff team, for having too many members. Though the faculty members unanimously dismissed the petition as having no legal merit, they were overruled by vote of the students present and unceremoniously disqualified.

The Third-Year Class’ efforts on an amazing first night raised NEARLY $5,000 for the Brian Williams Scholarship! This figure includes over 27 donations from the class members themselves, numerous donations from first and second year students, friends and family of Brian Williams, as well as from faculty and staff.

In the annual Third-Year Class Gift Drive competition between the Third-Year Class and the law school Faculty and Staff, the class has vaulted to an early lead with 26% of the class members making gifts on the opening night. Faculty and staff, still stinging from the defeat of Staff Infection, are trailing at 19% participation in the effort.

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to complete their gifts by May 11, 2012, for inclusion in the Hooding Ceremony program insert. The 2012 Third-Year Class Gift Captains are: Amanda Anderson, Amanda Beckers, Sterling Laudon, Hanna Schantz and John Wright.

(These participation rates may be adjusted due to a number of anonymous donations. Third-year students should make sure to advise John Mudd, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, of any donations they made anonymously so that their contributions can be counted toward the class participation goal.)

Congratulations to the UMSL Trial Team for competing with distinction at the Regional Trial Competition hosted by Gonzaga University last week. A special thanks goes out to the coaches of the trial team: Katie DeSoto, of Garlington, Lohn and Robinson; Randy Cox, of Boone Karlberg; and Judge Karen Townsend, District Court Judge for the 4th Judicial District. Additional thanks to Judge Dana Christensen, Magistrate Judge Keith Strong, Professor Cynthia Ford, Tim Dailey, Tracey Neighbor Johnson, Dylan McFarland, Tara Harris, Leisel Shoquist, Cory Laird, and Eric Henkel for generously giving their time and their years of trial experience.

Twenty-two teams from eleven law schools competed. The schools represented were Creighton, Gonzaga, Seattle U., Lewis and Clark, University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of Oregon, University of South Dakota and University of North Dakota and Nebraska. Mac Morris and Matt Jennings are counsel for our 2L team and performed exceptionally well; they were just points away from making the cut for the semi-final round of competition. Justin Cole and Zach Franz are counsel for our 3L team and had an excellent weekend of competition. The 3L team lost only one vote from an evaluating judge during the entire competition and won a spot to compete in Nationals. The National Competition will take place March 21-24 in Austin, Texas. The National Trial Competition is co-sponsored by the Texas Young Lawyers Association and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

The team also took four witnesses who have been an integral part of the trial team. Those are Jordan Knudsen, Derek Oestreicher, Brooke Perkins and Haley Nelson. The coaches and faculty are proud of the team’s representation of the University of Montana School of Law.

Derek Oestreicher
University of Montana School of Law
Class of 2013