Order of Barristers

The Order of Barristers is a national honorary organization whose purpose is the encouragement of oral advocacy and brief writing skills through effective law school oral advocacy programs. Students who have excelled in moot court, mock trial, brief writing, oral advocacy, and other advocacy programs throughout their time at the LSU Law Center are selected to join the Order. Over 100 law schools have chapters of the Order of Barristers.

Eligibility: The Law Center is allocated a limited number of Order of Barristers inductees each year; this number corresponds to the number of students who participate annually in our intramural and interscholastic advocacy competitions and advocacy-related coursework. Any member of the graduating class who has participated in at least one LSU Law Center Advocacy Programs competition (internal or external) of any type (moot court, mock trial, transactional, dispute resolution) at some point in their academic career is eligible to apply for induction. A student does *NOT* need to be a member of the Board of Advocates to be eligible for induction into the Order of Barristers.

Application Process: Graduating 3L students who wish to be considered for membership in the Order of Barristers must complete an online application form. This application is a holistic application that looks at a student’s entire law school experience. No one factor/criterion is determinative, and students should provide as much information as they believe is relevant to their application as possible! After completing the application, applicants must then write a personal statement (the prompt for this personal statement can be found in the application) and submit their personal statement and a current resume via email to Prof. Jeff Brooks.

Selection to the Order of Barristers will be based on the following criteria:

Membership on external advocacy competition teams, participation in tryouts for external advocacy competition teams, and performance/success at such external competitions, and/or
Participation in and performance in internal/intramural advocacy competitions, and/or
Participation in and performance of the administration of the Law Center’s advocacy programs, and/or
Participation and performance in any programs for the instruction of other law students in brief writing and/or oral advocacy skills, and/or
Performance record in the school’s brief-writing and/or oral advocacy courses.

Applications are reviewed by a faculty panel, who will recommend the list of new members to the Law Center’s dean for approval.

Class of 2024 Application Process:

Members of the graduating Class of 2024 may now submit an application for induction into the Order of Barristers. The application is in 3 parts, and all parts must be submitted on or before April 15, 2024 at 11:59 pm.

Online Application Form: All applicants must complete the 2024 Order of Barristers Online Application Form.
Resume: All applicants must email a copy of their current resume or CV to Prof. Jeff Brooks.
Personal Statement: All applicants must write and submit a personal statement, and email it to Prof. Jeff Brooks. This personal statement must be no more than 3 pages in length, double-spaced, in an easily readable 12-point font (e.g.; Times) with 1-inch margins. It must address the following question: “Taking into account all five of the 5 Order of Barristers selections criteria, why do you believe that you should be selected for induction into the Order of Barristers?” (Please specifically and directly address the five selections criteria in your personal statement. A generalized statement about your commitment to and interest in advocacy, or a discussion of how Order membership is relevant to your personal/career goals, is NOT what the committee is seeking.)

Students with questions about the LSU Law Center’s chapter of the Order of Barristers should contact Prof. Jeff Brooks.