RALEIGH – Campbell Law School advocates have earned yet another regional championship this time at 2024 American Bar Association (ABA) Regional Client Counseling Competition, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced.
Campbell Law served as a regional host for the competition that was held Feb. 9-10, 2024.
“We hosted nine teams from all over the nation, 27 judges, twelve clients and student ambassadors,” said Mary Ann Matney ‘17, director of the law school’s award-winning Competitive Advocacy Program. “The end result, though, was a stellar competition that allowed students to enhance their ability to counsel clients.”
Third-year law students Joanna Diaz, Rachel Putnam and second-year law student Sara Wilder are Campbell Law’s newest Regional Client Counseling Champions, who were proudly coached by Skylar Gallagher ’19, an attorney at McAngus Goudelock & Courie LLC. The team advances to the National Finals for the ABA Client Counseling Competition on March 15-16, 2024, at Louisianna State University.
Second-year students Dakhari Davis, Kendall Barbour and Hannah Brown finished as semifinalists in the competition. They were also coached by Gallagher.
Matney added, “We would like to thank all of our judges and clients that made the weekend’s competition possible. Without your help we could not have hosted a successful competition!”
Volunteers from surrounding universities served as clients for the competition including Meredith College, Shaw University, William Peace University and Campbell University.
In 2021, Campbell Law advocates won this particular regional championship for the third year in a row. That’s when Miriam Sheppard and Tabitha Cooke became the newest Regional Client Counseling Champions also coached by Gallagher and Zack Anstett ’18. In 2020, Campbell Law’s client counseling team of Amber Younce ’21 and Grace Massarelli ’21, also coached by Anstett ’18 of Parker Poe, won the Regional Championship and made it to the semi-finals in the first-ever virtual national competition in March 2020. In 2019 the team of Tatiana Terry ’19 and Katie Webb Miller ’19 won the Regional, National and World Championship titles.
The ABA Client Counseling competition addresses fundamental skills necessary for all successful attorneys, namely the ability to interview, counsel, and support a client through their legal issue. Competitors conduct an initial interview with a person playing the role of the client and then address both the client’s legal and non-legal needs.
This year’s competition focused on the area of Education Law. The ABA Client Counseling competition addresses fundamental skills necessary for all successful attorneys, namely the ability to interview, advise and support a client through their legal issues. Competitors conduct an initial interview with a person playing the role of the client and then address both the client’s legal and non-legal needs. Students are called on to explain various aspects of the attorney-client relationship, build rapport, determine client goals and consider applicable law and options that may be available to the client.
While conducting the interview with the client, competitors are being observed by three judges that score the competitors at the end of the interview.
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW
Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 4,800 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law is celebrating 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 15 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.