The FIU College of Law Trial Team has returned from Orlando after battling to reach the quarterfinals of this year’s E. Earle Zehmer Memorial Mock Trial Competition.
Advancing to the quarterfinals were 3Ls Nicholas Eybs and Kimesha Rowe-Fowler, and 2Ls Tori Reece, Abram Crespo and Jorge Herrera. These five students battled through three tough trials over two days, defeating Jacksonville University and Florida State University in the process. Their quarterfinal round against perennial powerhouse, Stetson, was competitive and professional.
FIU’s second team was comprised of 3Ls Robert Guitierrez and Sheyla Narbona, and 2LS David Agudelo, Manuel Muñoz-Repiso and Farrah Stino. They also performed extremely well, over two days fighting hard against UF, UM, and St. Thomas.
Schools competing in addition to FIU were St. Thomas (2025 winner), Barry, Stetson, University of Miami, Florida State, Nova Southeastern, Jacksonville University and Lincoln Memorial University. The case file for this year’s competition featured a wrongful death claim brought against a company accused of making a dangerously defective machine that an employee fell into and died. The defense argued that the machine was an open and obvious danger and that the employee assumed the risk of working around it.
Professor H.T. Smith said, “I appreciate the excellent, professional, and proud manner in which these students represented themselves, their school and the trial advocacy program. They developed powerful legal stories and delivered them with passion and poise.”
Both Zehmer teams worked tirelessly for seven weeks, on weekdays and weekends, to create powerful stories that would inspire judges and jurors. The team was coached by trial team alums Alexander Pollock (J.D. ’23), TerryAnn Howell (J.D. ’14), and Professor Ari S. Goldberg (J.D. ’12). Also contributing to the teams were Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michelle Delancy, and Professor H.T. Smith, Founding Director of the Trial Advocacy Program.
The E. Earle Zehmer Memorial Mock Trial Competition is sponsored by the Florida Justice Association’s Research & Education Foundation.