Campbell University issued the following announcement on April 5.
RALEIGH — The third time was the charm for Campbell Law School advocates who finished as the national champions at the 2022 Estrella Trial Advocacy Competition (ETAC).
Third-year students Carolyn Duhon and Kara Goray, and second-year students Danielle Murphy, Christian Lunghi and Jernigan Newell competed in the Estrella Trial Advocacy Competition over the weekend of April 1-4, 2022. The competition was hosted by the George Washington University Law School in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the team was proudly sponsored by Todd Jones ’98, founding partner of the Raleigh-based firm Anderson Jones, PLLC.
“Kara and Christian advocated masterfully as attorneys between multiple rounds, representing the defendant, and Danielle and Carolyn advocated representing the plaintiff,” explained Tatiana Terry ’19, the law school’s director of Competitive Advocacy.
This year’s competition problem involved a wrongful death and deceptive trade practices case where the plaintiff claimed the defendant-corporation fraudulently advertised a medicinal product that led to the death of a husband and father. Approximately 14 law school teams from across the nation competed in the tournament.
The team was proudly coached by former Wallace Fellow for Advocacy and Pro Bono Summer Combs ’21 and Daniel Nelson ’21. This competition marks the first time Nelson and Combs have coached a Campbell Law team to a national championship after graduating, Terry added.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the effort, advocacy, integrity, and decorum that these Campbell Law advocates demonstrated last weekend,” Nelson said. “Several judges spoke with me during the competition and commended the students’ overall performance and acknowledged that our students would likely best some of the practicing attorneys they see daily.”
Terry continued, “Our Campbell Law team faced schools from Cardozo School of Law and Brooklyn Law School in the preliminary rounds. Our students swept their preliminary opponents. After the preliminary rounds, our team advanced to the semifinal round where they bested Louisiana State University Law Center, advancing to the Championship Final Round.”
The final championship round presiding judge was Raul M. Arias-Marxuach, Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. At the conclusion of the four-hour trial, Campbell Law was named the National Champion after defeating the University of Virginia School of Law.
This marked the third time Campbell Law has competed in the ETAC, but the first time Campbell Law has won, Terry said.
“For the second consecutive week, Campbell Law will bring home national championship hardware,” she added. “The team is enormously grateful to their coaches, the Campbell Law Competitive Advocacy Program, Dean Leonard and the support of the faculty/staff who aid in making opportunities like these possible, particularly their ability to travel and compete in person.”
Original source can be found here.
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