Mock Trial team places 8th nationally

One of two squads from the James Lewis Family Miami Mock Trial Program finished 8th out of more than 550 teams at the Mock Trial National Championships, held April 17-19 in Des Moines, Iowa. It is the second consecutive year that Miami has posted a Top Ten finish at the prestigious competition.

The team found its victory over the Boston University team especially sweet. In the “Frozen Four” ice hockey playoff the previous weekend, BU beat Miami in overtime to win the NCAA championship.

The case presented this year was a fictional civil defamation case in which defeated gubernatorial candidate Drew Walton is suing the Blitz News Network for defamation as a result of the death of a political opponent.

Members of the 8th place national team are Alex Bluebond, junior economics major; Jeremy Grondin, junior math major; Kevin Harrison, junior marketing major; Tom Jeffcott, junior marketing major; Gus Lazares, junior economics major; Jackie Sherrick, junior political science major; and Katie Wallrabenstein, sophomore psychology major.

Miami’s other contending team received an honorable mention at the tournament. One of its members, Pavel Gurevich, a freshman business honors student, was named an All-American Witness.

Professor Dan Herron, program director, said that the Miami squads are poised for a very good season in 2009-2010. “The 8th place team comes back intact and loaded for bear, while we will lose only two graduating seniors from the other team,” he explained. “In addition, we’ll move into our new quarters next fall in the new Farmer School building.”

The James Lewis Family Miami Mock Trial Program is coached by Herron and fellow business law professors Wayne Staton and Dan Haughey, members of the Farmer School faculty. They are assisted by economics graduate student Whitney Benson; Lawrence Hilton, a law student at Chase School of Law; and Barry Tolchin, a first-year advisor at Miami.

Content maintained by External Relations