St. John’s School of Law Mock Trial Teams Finish 1-2 at Northeast Regional Competition

Teams representing St. John’s University School of Law finished in first and second place at the National Black Law Student Association’s (BLSA) Northeast Regional Mock Trial Competition held recently in Albany, N.Y.

First place team members Rebecca Amissah, Nancy Durant, Lanielle Roach and Richard Washington were coached by Richard Johnson, Law Secretary to the Hon. Daniel Lewis.  The second place team of Naima Gregory, Lisa Harris, Jerel Johnson and Michael Namikas were coached by U.S. Immigration Court Judge Theresa Holmes-Simmons.  Ms. Harris also won the First-Runner Up Award for her individual performance.

With its teams first and second place finishes in the BALSA Regional, the School of Law continues its impressive string of victories in national mock trial competitions.  Last year teams representing St. John’s won the Loyola Law School’s fourth annual National Civil Trial Competition and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) Student Competition and reached the finals the Texas Young Lawyer’s Association Trial Competition, the American Bar Association National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition and the National BALSA Thurgood Marshall Trial Advocacy Competition. 

A third team representing the School of Law, Tiffany Anderson, Crystal Beaumont, Eric Murrell and Rasheeja (Nikki) Page, made it to the quarterfinal round of the competition.  They were coached by law school Professor Victoria Brown-Douglas.  

The first and second place teams will represent the School of Law at the invitation-only National BLSA Mock Trial Competition in Washington D.C. in late March.  The National Mock Trial Competition, begun by BLSA in 2002, is intended to develop participants’ skills in all areas of trial practice including criminal and civil procedure, rules of evidence, legal research and writing, analytical skills and advocacy. The fact pattern of the regional competition involved a racial discrimination case against a neighborhood drug store profiling a particular racial group as shoplifters.

For more information please contact Dominic Scianna, Director of Media Relations at St. John’s University, (718) 990-6185 or e-mail inquiries to sciannad@stjohns.edu.

For information regarding the St. John’s School of Law contact Keri K. Gould, Assistant Dean for Professional Skills and Assistant Professor of Clinical Education at (718) 990-2179 or e-mail inquiries to gouldk@stjohns.edu.