The Tower will glow orange April 22 in honor of the Law School‘s Interscholastic Mock Trial Team, which won a national championship in February in the 2013 John L. Costello National Criminal Law Trial Advocacy Competition. It was the second time in three years the UT Law Interscholastic Team has won the Costello competition. The Law School team also won in 2011.
The law students who won the national championship are advocates Will Clark and Maryssa Simpson; witness Alex Hughes; and alternate Brandan Montminy, all third-year students. Additionally, advocates Dustin Taylor and James Winters; witness Ryan Ellis; and alternate Meredith Graham, also all third-year law students, advanced to the quarterfinal round. The team is coached by Jay Adkins, ’82, assistant attorney general in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Office of the Attorney General, and Marjorie Bachman, ’05, associate at the Law Office of E.G. Morris.
The Costello Trial Advocacy Competition is hosted by the George Mason University School of Law. The competition is different than many other mock trial competitions in that new evidence and witnesses are revealed as the competition progresses. Out of 34 teams competing this year, UT Law was the only school that had both teams break to quarterfinals, meaning half of the prosecution teams in the quarterfinal rounds were from UT Law.
