BYU Law’s Trial Advocacy Team of Colt Mund, Karen Sullivan, and Jonathan Radford swept the Regional Trial Advocacy Competition held February 16-19, qualifying for the National Trial Competition in March. The team competed against teams from law schools in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. The competition was hosted by the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law and took place at the Missoula County Courthouse. The American College of Trial Lawyers and the Texas Young Lawyers co-sponsored the competition.
The BYU Law team of Tanner Bean, Mary Mottaghian, and Morgan Luedtke also competed in the competition and advanced to the semi-final round of competition after three rounds.
Peter Leavitt, the teams’ coach and Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney, said this year’s teams represented the greatest depth of advocacy talent he has seen so far as a coach. He hopes that the BYU Trial Advocacy Program can continue to build upon their success.
The competition was judged by experienced trial attorneys, fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Montana State Judges, Montana Supreme Court Judges, and Federal District Court Judges from across the state. The judges expressed their pride in BYU Law teams’ advocacy skills, telling them that they advocated at the top level of currently-practicing attorneys.
The national competition is slated for March 22-25 and will take place in Fort Worth, Texas.