FIU’s championship team is comprised of 3Ls Naomi Eid, Alejandro Gonzalez, and 2Ls Michael Leatherman, and Rachel Cross.
In its Raleigh, North Carolina region, FIU Law went undefeated, 5-0, sweeping the tournament and winning a near-perfect 14 of 15 juror ballots along the way. FIU also earned critical national trial team ranking points with this victory
FIU Law defeated teams from Campbell, Lincoln Memorial, and Emory in the preliminary rounds and was ranked second going into their semifinal, defeating national powerhouse Stetson to earn their shot at capturing the crown, and then besting Campbell once again for the title.
Pictured left to right, AAJ 2025 Regional Champion FIU College of Law: 2Ls Michael Leatherman and Rachel Cross, lead coach Ashley Lherisson, and 3Ls Alejandro Gonzalez and Naomi Eid.
Filling out the field in FIU’s Raleigh region were Florida’s Barry and St. Thomas, along with non-Florida law schools Charleston, Emory, Georgia State, Hofstra, InterAmerican, Mercer, the Universities of D.C., Georgia, and South Carolina, and Wake Forest.
This year’s AAJ tournament also featured a remote division – competing entirely on-line – and FIU Law fielded a formidable team there as well.
Making it all the way to the semifinal round in their on-line bracket were 3Ls Faitherly Claudio, Darlene Rodriguez, and Jessica Vargas-Millares, and 2L Benjamin Sly, who fell a single juror vote shy of making it to the championship round themselves.
Both teams put in six long weeks of story-building and advocacy practice, crafting their directs, crosses, openings, closings and everything in between, while refining their jury presentations and trial techniques, weekdays and weekends – including all through spring break – and the proof of all their dedication and hard work is in these stellar results.
FIU Law now prepares for another solid month before traveling to Atlanta, Georgia, along with fellow Raleigh winner Campbell (who fielded two teams at the tournament), to meet regional champions from across the country and compete for the national title.
“Our Trial Team members – in person and on-line – demonstrated the expertise, resilience, and professionalism that is the calling card of the FIU Law Trial Advocacy Program,” praised Professor H.T. Smith, Inaugural Director of the program. “With passion and principle, they bring respect, honor, and value to the College of Law.”
Lead coach for our AAJ regional champion and semifinal advocates was FIU Law Trial Team alumna Ashley Lherisson ’17, assisted by fellow Trial Team alumni Evan Thomas ’23 and Alexander Pollock ’23, a former AAJ regional champion himself. Invaluable assistance was also provided by Professor Ari S. Goldberg ’12, an adjunct professor in our Trial Advocacy Program, and Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michelle Delancy.
This year’s competition presented a civil wrongful death trial involving a fatal highway tractor-trailer crash
Our AAJ regional results come on the heels of the FIU Law Trial Team’s semifinal finish last fall in the Georgetown National White Collar Crime Invitational, and our quarterfinal and final four results in January’s Chester Bedell Memorial Mock Trial Competition, sponsored by the Trial Lawyers Section of The Florida Bar.
AAJ’s STAC is one of only two open national championship tournaments offered in the law school trial team community each year and ranks among the premier mock trial competitions in the country.
To discover more about the FIU Trial Advocacy Program, its Trial Team, curriculum, advocacy and scholarship opportunities, and amazing students, visit law.fiu.edu/trialad or call 305-348-8095.