Third-year law student Jace Motley has been selected as one of 35 students from across the country to participate in the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law's Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference to be held Feb. 23-25 in Washington, D.C. 

Over the course of the conference, participants will receive opinion writing instruction from some of the nation's most distinguished members of the judiciary. They will also be guided through writing an appellate court opinion and will receive individual review and commentary on their work by the conference faculty, all judges or former judicial clerks themselves. The Honorable Lee Rudofsky of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas is a member of the 2023 conference faculty.

The Columbus School of Law will fund travel and accommodations for all conferees, and each will be eligible for the CSL Prize in Judicial Clerkship Writing.

Motley's acceptance into the conference marks the second consecutive year a student from U of A School of Law has won a position. Tyler Mlakar represented the school at the 2022 conference and now clerks for the Honorable Bobby E. Shepherd of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.      

"I learned of this opportunity because of Tyler's participation," Motley said. "He mentioned how valuable the experience was in preparing for his clerkship and how much it continues to benefit him in that role. Opinion writing is daunting, and I consider it a privilege and a tremendous honor to hone these skills under the direction of a distinguished panel of federal and circuit court judges."    

Motley will begin a two-year clerkship with the Honorable D. P. Marshall Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in August. The Conway native is a 2017 graduate of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He is a 2021 recipient of the Judge Thomas F. Butt Award for Excellence in Legal Research and Writing. As a 3L, he is a member of the 2022-2023 editorial board of Arkansas Law Review, serving as the Arkansas Law Notes editor and is the Student Bar Association's faculty liaison.