On Oct. 22-23, our National Trial Team competed at the annual Buffalo-Niagara Mock Trial Competition, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious law school trial competitions. The 2021 competition was held over Zoom, attracting teams from 28 top law school trial advocacy programs.
The WashULaw team earned a winning record in the preliminary rounds of the competition, besting strong teams from St. John’s University and Quinnipiac University. Don Daniel (’23), in his first ever trial competition, outperformed 167 direct examinations, earning the Best Direct Examination award. Additionally, amongst 84 closing arguments given by students from schools such as Yale and UPenn, Shannon Lin (’22) earned the Best Closing Argument award. This marks the third consecutive year that our team has taken home this coveted award. The team also included Jonathan Rowe (’23) and Rob Servilio (’22).
The team relied upon the endless support of its head coach and program director Judge David C. Mason (’83) as well as the support coaching staff, including attorneys Brooke Lima (’02), Mark Rudder (‘91), and Emily Allison (’14).