Return to
Table of Contents

Steamy case highlights Mock Trial Competition

Christina Morrison and Anthony Sam,
John Marshall Law School.

View Slideshow

Nearly 130 law students from 32 colleges and universities. Seventy-three mock trials. More than 150 local lawyers and judges. And one riveting case: the murder of a law school dean, shot to death in his office - allegedly by a law professor who was the dean's rival for the attentions of a popular female law student.

That was the formula for UB Law School's sixth annual Buffalo-Niagara National Mock Trial Competition, which had its successful run in November in Buffalo's downtown court buildings.

"This is far and away the biggest competition in the country," said Hon. Thomas P. Franczyk, competition director and co-director of trial advocacy at the Law School. "The combined support from our Law School, court system and bar association is phenomenal."

State Supreme Court Justice Kevin M. Dillon '76 presided over the championship round, held in the State Supreme Court ceremonial courtroom. The "prosecution team," from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, defeated the "defense team," from St. John's University School of Law in Queens, to claim victory.

Anthony Sam from the Marshall team was named Best Advocate and received an award presented in honor of Matthew J. Schnirel, a 2008 UB Law School graduate and former trial team member who died in a plane crash in April.

In addition to UB, Marshall and St. John's, other schools represented included Fordham, Pace, Duquesne, Temple, Syracuse, Michigan State and American universities, Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Universities of Illinois, Connecticut and Wisconsin.

The sensational case was drafted by Syracuse University Law School Professor Travis Lewin, who was Franczyk's trial team coach at Syracuse University Law School in the early 1980s. "You've got a dead dean, a femme fatale and a slew of suspects to go around," Franczyk said. "Professor Lewin assured me the fact pattern is entirely fictional."

The Mock Trial Competition was one of several facets of UB Law's thriving trial technique program. Also in November, UB hosted the ninth annual intramural ABA Representation in Mediation Competition, sponsored by the Bar Association of Erie County, the Student ADR Association and the Law School. Thirty-three lawyers from the community served as mediators or scoring judges at this daylong competition, and 36 law students role-played as attorney-client teams. Each team negotiated against another attorney-client team, with a mediator facilitating the discussions in two separate legal disputes.

U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny opened this year's competition by addressing the students and attorneys, pointing out how important it is for lawyers to learn effective representation skills in the context of mediation, which is used with increasing frequency.

Winners of the competition, which was organized and run by Adjunct Professor Steven Sugarman and Clinical Professor Suzanne Tomkins, were Danielle Parent '10, Robyn Zenzinger '10, Matthew Musial '11 and Anant Kishore '11.

Also, the intramural Charles S. Desmond Moot Court Competitionhad its most recent successful run in late October in courtrooms at the Law School and in downtown Buffalo.

Seventeen two-person teams competed in the tournament, which is open to second- and third-year students at the Law School and serves as a qualifier for membership on the Buffalo Moot Court Board, the school's chief moot court organization. The field experienced some attrition because of a flu outbreak among some would-be participants.

As always, accomplished lawyers from Western New York judged competitors in the preliminary rounds; Law School professors and federal and state judges evaluated the semifinalists and finalists. The judges panel for the competition's final round, held in the Law School's Francis M. Letro Courtroom, consisted of Erin M. Peradotto '84, New York State Supreme Court justice, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and U.S. Magistrate Judges H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. '61 and Leslie G. Foschio '65.

The winning team of third-year students Scott Iseman and Joshua Agins also placed 1-2 as best oral advocates. The runner-up team overall, Christopher Moran and Jeffrey Fiut, was honored for best brief.

Next on the trial technique agenda: the Albert R. Mugel National Tax Moot Court Competition, the oldest national tax moot court competition in the United States. The oral advocacy competition will take place in Buffalo from Feb. 25 to 27, concluding with a festive awards banquet.