The UCLA School of Law is creating a new trial advocacy program following a $1 million donation from one of its alumni.
A. Barry Cappello’s donation is funding the A. Barry Cappello Program in Trial Advocacy, a program that provides training to students interested in becoming trial advocates, and will offer more scholarships for students pursuing careers as trial attorneys, according to a UCLA press release.
Cappello, who earned his law degree from UCLA in 1965, is the managing partner of Cappello & Noël LLP, a law firm based in Santa Barbara, according to the law firm’s website.
The new trial advocacy program will include course offerings and mandatory mock trial competitions.
Students who successfully complete the program will receive the newly-inaugurated Cappello Certificate in Trial Advocacy at graduation, according to the release.
The donation is also matched with funding from the Chancellor’s Centennial Scholarship Match to provide a $125,000 scholarship for law students interested in trial advocacy, according to the release.
This donation follows Cappello’s $1.25 million donation to the law school in 2006, which UCLA used to establish the Barry Cappello Courtroom in 2009.
Since it’s opening, the courtroom has hosted the proceedings of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Federal Circuit, and several mock trials and moot court proceedings, according to the release.
Cappello’s contribution will be part of the Centennial Campaign for UCLA, which aims to raise $4.2 billion for the university by the end of 2019.
[Related: Centennial Campaign seeks to raise $4.2 billion for UCLA]