FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Clay Ledbetter and Blake Rutherford recently won the University of Arkansas School of Law’s final round of the 2002 William H. Sutton Barristers’ Union Trial Competition, held Oct. 4, in the Leflar Law Center Courtroom.

Ledbetter, a third-year student from Checotah, Okla., and Rutherford, a third-year student from Little Rock, defeated third-year students Raney English and Clay Fowlkes, both of Jonesboro, in the final. A total of 32 two-person teams competed in the two-week event that featured five rounds and was open to all second- and third-year law students.

The final round was argued before William H. (Buddy) Sutton, managing partner of the Little Rock law firm of Friday Eldredge & Clark, Don R. Elliott, Jr., partner of the Fayetteville law firm of Odom & Elliott, and Donald P. Judges, Ben J. Altheimer Professor of Legal Advocacy at the UA School of Law.

Trial competition scholarships for the 2002 event were provided by Bobby Lee Odom (’70), Don R. Elliott, Jr. (’78), Russell B. Winburn (’87), J. Timothy Smith (’91) and Conrad T. Odom (’91) of Odom & Elliott.

The competition involved teams working with a previously drafted record, presenting an opening statement, examining and cross-examining witnesses and giving closing arguments in a mock trial setting.