Texas Tech civ pro law prof uses Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's summary judgment motion as teaching tool

When Texas Tech University School of Law assistant professor Dustin Benham (pictured) read the Mark Cuban summary judgment motion attached to an e-mail he received last week, he immediately knew he had an interesting teaching tool. “It was a short and a great way to incorporate demonstrative evidence into a motion,” he says. “The picture spoke for itself, didn’t it?” The picture is the Dallas Mavericks celebrating their NBA championship. It is incorporated into a summary judgment motion filed June 22 in the 192nd District Court in Dallas. Benham shared the motion with the law students in his civil procedure class. “The students loved it, because it incorporated something they are very interested in, like sports, into the legal context, which I’m interested in teaching them about,” Benham says. “It’s hard to get students excited about motions for summary judgment, believe it or not. When you have something that is exciting and also a motion for summary judgment, it’s a great tool.” Benham says he is not familiar with the underlying suit, but he says the motion has features he encourages his students to incorporate in their legal writing: brevity and creativity. When asked about the team, Benham says, “Oh yeah, I’m a huge Mavericks fan.”
-- Jeanne Graham