School of Law Students Headed for Finals at Four National Competitions

Four teams representing the Frank S. Polestino Trial Advocacy Institute of St. John’s University School of Law have reached the finals in four different national mock trial competitions, a feat never before accomplished by St. John’s students in a single year. A fifth team also qualified for one of these competition finals but will not attend as the competition rules allow only one team per university.

The team of Wayne Gosnell, Phan Alvarado and Robert Carroll -- coached by Stephen Murphy, a Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney and St. John’s graduate -- won the regional contest of the Texas Young Lawyer’s Association Trial Competition held in Syracuse in February and will compete in the national contest in March 30 through April 2 in San Antonio, Texas. This is the third consecutive year that the Institute’s team won the regional in this most prestigious of all the competitions; a St. John’s team won the national championship in 2003. 

St. John’s alumnus Kareem Vessup coached the team of Alex Gilbert, Tom Brennan, Elizabeth Brown and John Paul Igoe to a win at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) Student Competition held in Manhattan in February. They will face the winners of other regionals at the national competition April 7 through April 10 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Also competing at the ATLA regional was the team of Jessica Duffy, G. P. Scarola, Deven Smith and Pishoy Yacoub, who finished fifth overall. They were coached by Joe Seiger.

The American Bar Association National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition finals, scheduled for March 30 through April 2 in Chicago, Illinois will be attended by Ken Kushner, Chris Holbrooke, Vinny Lee and Kerry Rowe, who won the Quinnipiac Regional Competition in October. They’ll travel with their coach Scott Occhiogrosso to Chicago for the finals. The team of Felice Barry, Guido Gabriele, Kristi Guigliano, and Andrew Kepple, coached by Burton Ryan (AUSA) also qualified for the same finals competition by winning the Georgetown White Collar Crime Mock Trial Invitational in Washington, D.C. but will not attend since, under the rules of the competition, a university may only send the one team.

Placing second in the regional contest of the National Black Law Students Association Thurgood Marshall Trial Advocacy Competition, advances the team of Nancy Durand, Lanielle Roach, Denetra Thompson and Raasheja Page to the national competition being held March 30 through April 2.  Alumnus and Coach Eylan Schulman will accompany the team to Denver, Colorado.

All told it has been a very successful year for the Frank S. Polestino Trial Advocacy Institute which is a student run organization dedicated to providing the law school community with opportunities to participate in trial training programs, competitions, and trial-related legal writing forums which promote and support St. John’s reputation as a leader in the field of trial advocacy skills. Established in 2003, the Institute is a result of the union of the Criminal Law Institute and the Civil Trial Institute and is named after the late Frank S. Polestino, a distinguished professor and faculty advisor for the Criminal Law Institute.