Campbell Law student earns Best Advocate honorable mention at National Flash Trial Competition

Campbell Law School veteran advocates Annaliese Spielman ’26 and Hailey LaRock ’26 participated in the 4th Annual National Flash Trial Competition (NFTC) hosted by Berkeley Law School on Sept. 5-7 at the JAMS Conference Center in San Francisco.

LaRock earned an honorable mention for Best Advocate, according to Director of Competitive Advocacy Rene Shekmer.

“Our veterans Annaliese Spielman and Hailey LaRock had an excellent Flash competition in San Francisco last weekend,” Shekmer explained. “The competition itself was about as hard as they come and the competition between teams was tougher.”

The NFTC brings together 20 students from 10 leading law schools for three days of lightning-fast trials, where competitors receive case files just 45–60 minutes before each round and deliver full trials lasting about an hour, according to a Mondaq article about the competition.

This year introduced a groundbreaking twist: the competition partnered with “Eve Legal,” an A.I. platform for personal injury law, giving students access to cutting-edge tools during trial prep. Every trial was recorded and analyzed to study how A.I. impacts strategy, speed and advocacy under pressure.

“Trial advocacy has always evolved with new tools and technologies,” said Spencer J. Pahlke, Walkup shareholder and coach for Berkeley Law’s trial advocacy teams. “By integrating A.I. into this competition, we’re preparing the next generation of lawyers for the courtroom of the future.”

In addition to Campbell Law, participating schools included Baylor University School of Law; University of Denver Sturm College of Law; Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law; University of Houston Law Center; University of Maryland School of Law; University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law; UCLA School of Law; University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law; and San Francisco UC Law.

With 23 trials in three days, the NFTC is one of the country’s most innovative trial advocacy events, blending tradition, technology and real-time experimentation, the article stated