Campbell Law advocates headed to TYLA National Trial Competition

A team of Campbell Law School advocates is once again headed to the Nationals Competition of the Texas Young Lawyer’s Association (TYLA) National Trial Competition. The team competed in the Regional Competition in February, hosted by William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Third-year students Sydney Kraft and Susannah Horton will represent Campbell Law in Houston, Texas, on April 2-7. The team was coached to victory at Regionals by Maria Hawkins ’12.  Hunter Holtsclaw will also coach the team at Nationals. The team’s trip to Texas is proudly sponsored by Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP.

Campbell Law’s second team of advocates — third-year students Will Sparks, Brandon Minella and Mollie Sells — finished as finalists in the regional competition. Four Campbell Law students served as witnesses for the regional competition. Those students were Anthony Jennings, Jason White, Linda Yager and Jay Brocker.

The National Finals will take place in person at the Harris County Courthouse. Each team will compete in four qualifying rounds. The competition this year involves the trial of a first-degree murder.

Each year, the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA) and the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) hosts the National Trial Competition. NTC was created to stimulate student interest in developing trial advocacy skills and to encourage law schools to teach trial advocacy skills. This tournament is one of the premier trial advocacy competitions in the country. Regional Tournaments are held across the nation, and the two winners of each region then compete in the National Finals.

In the NTC Region V, Campbell Law and University of South Carolina advocates were this year’s regional winners.