The competition is scheduled for March 3-5 in Minneapolis, Minn.

Derek K. Hirohata, a second-year law student from Dos Palos, California, and captain of the 14-member team, said the competition allows students to gain invaluable experience in a trial setting.

It allows us to take students to national competition and act in an actual trial environment, he said.

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He said the atmosphere is more like what you see on Perry Mason or in the O. J. Simpson trial.

It is like a chess game, Hirohata said. You have to constantly be thinking.

Students are graded in three areas:direct-examination skills, cross-examination skills and opening and closing arguments.

Law professor and faculty adviser William Schroeder said he provides the team with strategic advice.

Schroeder said the purpose of competing is not really to win, but to gain experience.

It is to give people trial skills and allow them to go before the court, he said.

Myles Epperson, a second-year law student from Granite City, said the competition gives SIU students the chance to experience how trials are conducted.

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By actually doing it we learn more than just reading it in a textbook, he said.

Kendall Ray, a second-year law student from Mt. Vernon, said he was competing to gain experience in trial advocacy.

Each of us learned the process of trial litigation, he said.

When we get out in our field of employment, we will know how to litigate in front of a judge, he said.