After winning the 2026 Annapolis Regional competition sponsored by the American Association for Justice (AAJ), our Trial Team, composed of 3Ls Rachel Cross, Michael Leatherman, and Benjamin Sly, and 2L Callie Moore traveled to New Orleans and battled their way to the semifinals of the AAJ National Student Trial Advocacy Competition. This is the first time our Trial Team has advanced to the Final Four of this prestigious national mock trial competition.The competing schools included UCLA, Stetson, Temple, Ohio State, Notre Dame, University of Texas, Howard University, University of Georgia, Campbell University, University of the Pacific McGeorge, UNLV, University of Colorado, Duquesne University, Fordham University, Mercer, and Drexel.
In the preliminary rounds, our team defeated the University of the Pacific McGeorge and Northwestern University but lost to the University of Georgia. With our winning record and strong scores, our team advanced to the quarterfinals. Our team beat Howard University in one of the best trials in the competition to advance to the semifinal round against Campbell University. The semifinal round was an extremely hard-fought trial, with Campbell coming out on top by a 3 to 2 vote of the judges – Campbell won by one point on two of the three judges that voted for them. Campbell went on to win the National Championship.
The case file for this year’s competition featured a wrongful death claim brought against a corporation that owned a parking lot where a 75-year-old man was walking to his car, tripped on an exposed sprinkler head, fell to the ground, hit his head, and died. The lawsuit alleged that the owner of the parking lot was negligent because there was inadequate lighting in the parking lot, and the owner failed to fix or adequately warn of the exposed sprinklers. The corporation filed a comparative negligence claim alleging that the plaintiff tripped over the exposed sprinkler head because he was intoxicated.
Professor H.T. Smith said, “This Trial Team and coaches made history for the Trial Advocacy Program and FIU College of Law. From the very beginning, their goal was to win the Regional Championship, which they did, and then win the National Championship. Although they came up a little short at the Nationals, they advanced farther than any Trial Team had before. There will always be a special place in our Trial Team history for this group of legal warriors and coaches.”
The team was coached by Trial Team alumni Alexander Pollock, TerryAnn Howell, and Professor H.T. Smith.