Trial Advocacy Board Teams Progress to Semi-Finals

In early February, the Trial Advocacy Board had two teams competing for the first time in the John L. Costello National Criminal Law Trial Advocacy Competition hosted by George Mason Law. This competition, unlike others, reveals unknown facts and witnesses as the competition progresses to simulate the evolving and unexpected nature of actual criminal trials.

Jennifer Sykes, Brett West, and Hayley Mohr advanced to the Quarterfinals against Georgetown and then to Semi-Finals against UVA, beating both teams. Richmond Law was in the Semi-Finals with Georgetown, UVA and NYU. In the end, Richmond was the second highest scoring Defense team in the competition.

Ryan Foreman, Davy Crumplar, and Liz Southall competed against UVA and South Dakota, and the judge in one of their rounds granted their Motion for Judgment of Acquittal.

Three alumni helped to coach the team: Michael HuYoung, L'82, Isaac McBeth, L'11, and Erica Giovanni, L'10. They helped with full mootings as well as meeting with teams and team members individually. They devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to insure our students were fully prepared for this week-end despite their own busy trial schedules.