BU Law Grad To Lead American Board Of Trial Advocates

February 24, 2006
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Lewis R. Sifford

A Baylor law graduate, Lewis R. Sifford of Dallas, has been sworn in as national president-elect of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

Headquartered in Dallas and founded in California nearly 50 years ago, ABOTA is a national association of 6,000 trial lawyers and judges dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial right provided by the 7th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Sifford, the founder and managing partner of the Dallas law firm of Sifford, Anderson & Co., P.C., will serve a one-year term as president-elect, and will take the reins as national ABOTA president in 2007. He received his undergraduate degree from Baylor in 1971 and his law degree from Baylor Law School in 1972.

Baylor Law Dean Brad Toben said, "Lewis Sifford has been an assiduous defender of the constitutional right of trial by jury in the face of attacks on this right from many quarters. In taking the leadership role of ABOTA, he will continue to be a powerful voice in the efforts of so many to assure that the sacred constitutional rights won by our forebears at such a high price are not diminished or abrogated. We are proud of Lewis and proud of the profession and judicial system for which he speaks."

Sifford has been a member of ABOTA's National Board of Directors since 1995, and has served as national treasurer for a number of years. He was president of the Dallas ABOTA Chapter in 1994. The recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, he has served for a number of years as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of ABOTA copyright materials for the organization's Masters in Trial programs, and has conducted more than 100 trial demonstrations at trial programs for ABOTA and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. In 1992, Sifford was selected by the American Bar Association to participate in a trial demonstration at the University of Moscow to assist in establishing the Civil Trial Jury Institute of Russia.

Baylor Law School's Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center was the venue recently for a Masters on Jury Selection Program hosted by the Waco ABOTA chapter. The program, held in the James Kronzer Appellate Advocacy Classroom and Courtroom, attracted more than 100 attorneys and law students.

ABOTA membership consists of lawyers and judges spread among 90 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, go to www.abota.org