For more than 15 years, Cumberland School of Law students have enjoyed summer studies at Cambridge University. As a complement to this long-running program, Cumberland launched a new advocacy-themed program in June 2024 at the University of Edinburgh. It emphasizes persuasion as an essential advocacy skill across multiple settings, from courtroom to conference room to living room. Sara Williams, JD ’06, and Matt Woodham, JD ’15, were among the Edinburgh faculty, the first time Cumberland’s advocacy directors participated in a program abroad.
The vision for expanding international offerings is credited to associate dean Jill Evans. “Students who participate in our summer abroad programs return home with a broadened scope of legal understanding,” she said. “Our new study abroad opportunity in Scotland builds a persuasive advocacy component into our elite advocacy program and pairs a CLE at the end designed to give practicing attorneys as well as students a focused series of workshops and presentations to hone their persuasive advocacy skills.”
Then, when Blake Hudson became dean in 2022, his priorities included expanding opportunities for first-generation law students. Both visions found reality in Scotland.
“As someone with public speaking anxiety, participating in this program was out of my comfort zone,” said Sydney Moore, a third-year first-generation law student. “But it pushed me to discover a talent and deeper passion for advocacy that I did not know existed within myself. Our professors truly put their all into showing us how advocacy really is an art form; in a beautiful, welcoming country with their own longstanding traditions of legal advocacy. If you have the privilege of being a student at Cumberland, and choose not to participate in this opportunity, you are doing a major disservice to yourself and your future legal career."
This experience allowed Cumberland students to immerse themselves in Scotland’s culture. Students explored sites of historical significance including the Edinburgh Castle, Scottish Parliament, Stirling Castle and the Signet Library, the original law library in Edinburgh and still working library for advocates representing the British Crown.
The Cambridge and Edinburgh cohorts united for an excursion to Brussels, Belgium, exploring governmental operations of the European Union. The tour was led by Loreta Raulinaityte, JD ’98, coordinator of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and Head of Unit for Translation and Interpretation for the Lithuanian government.
“The life-changing opportunity to study abroad in Scotland and forge connections with another culture and other Cumberland students is something I will carry with me forever,” said second-year student Autumngrace Page. “Scotland proved to be unforgettable in allowing me to be exposed to another culture. It also invited me into the way the law operates elsewhere and how it differs from the American legal system I am so accustomed to.”
The Edinburgh program concluded with The Art of Advocacy, the law school’s first continuing legal education conference for practicing attorneys from the U.S. and U.K. It featured experiential sessions devoted to persuasive advocacy, rather than traditional lectures. The slate of presenters included longtime Cumberland advocacy and trial team director, Judge Jim Roberts, JD ’94, Judge Kevin Newsom ’94, general counsel of the South Carolina Bar, Jill Rothstein, LLM ‘22, and principal at Beasley Allen law firm Dee Miles, JD ‘89.
This story was originally published in the 2024 edition of Cumberland Lawyer magazine. Read the complete issue here.