Sioux Falls law firm established and provided initial funding for Trial Advocacy Fellowship at the USD School of Law

The law firm is honored to have established and provided the initial funding for the University of South Dakota School of Law Trial Advocacy Fellowship.  The firm provided funding for this Fellowship from 2012 - 2014.  The Fellowship provides salary support in the area of trial advocacy at the University of South Dakota School of Law.

"For us, this was a harmonic convergence," stated Steven M. Johnson (USD School of Law, '76) of Johnson, Abdallah, Bollweg & Parsons, LLP. "It's an opportunity to give something back to the school we love, where most of us first learned to love the law, while at the same time promote excellence in trial and appellate advocacy, which is the primary focus of our firm."

The first recipient of the Trial Advocacy Fellowship is Thomas J. Horton, who joined the USD Law School faculty in 2009. Prior to joining South Dakota's Law School faculty, Horton spent 28 years litigating and trying antitrust and complex civil cases in federal courts throughout the United States. His career includes governmental stints with the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission, and private practice as a partner with several major international law firms in the District of Columbia, including Howrey & Simon, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. Horton received a J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University, a M.A.L.S. (American Studies) from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in biological sciences from Harvard University.

The law firm established and provided the initial funding for the fellowship to assist the USD School of Law in offering high quality teachers and scholars, as well as a show of support for the trial technique courses and competitive national trial teams.

For more information about the USD School of Law is also available on the web at www.usd.edu/law.