RALEIGH — Campbell Law trial advocates — third-year students Kevin Littlejohn and Lydia Stoney and second-year students Courtney Haywood and Luke Coates and their coach Jacob Morse ‘17 — prevailed at the National Civil Trial Competition (NCTC) at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles over the weekend. This is Campbell Law’s first championship at NCTC.
“Our advocates never lost a trial through six straight rounds and the team earned the No. 1 seed for their competition record,” said Professor Dan Tilly, director of the law school’s Trial Advocacy Program. “Kevin and Lydia served as the lawyers throughout. The team defeated a tremendous UCLA team in the final round.”
Stoney was named the championship round best advocate and Littlejohn won the prestigious Best Opening Statement award among all student lawyers in the competition.
Coach Morse is a former Top Gun and Campbell Law’s most recent championship best advocate winner in the NCTC finals in 2016.
“A big thanks to Jacob and the team’s sponsors, the Hardison & Cochran law firm, who helped make this experience possible,” said Dean J. Rich Leonard. “I am so proud of everyone’s efforts for bringing home the hardware!”
“Hardison & Cochran has financially paved the way for our student advocates, and we are blessed to enjoy our relationship with them,” Dean Leonard added. “Their gift provides the opportunity for our students to learn, get competitive experience, and show the rest of the country how our first-class advocacy program is molding the future leading attorneys of tomorrow. We are in debt to them for their generosity.”
Prior to this year’s competition, Campbell Law has finished in the top five each of the past four years. In 2016, the team finished as national runner-up while winning the championship best advocate award.
The Greene Broillet & Wheeler National Civil Trial Competition is hosted by Loyola Law School and held at the Santa Monica Courthouse. This year’s civil mock trial involved the fictitious case, Ricki Rhodes v. Los Diablos Correctional Center and Pat Mercer. The plaintiff was a former inmate suing the prison and its warden for failing to protect him from a violent cellmate.
The National Civil Trial Competition is a national invitational tournament featuring 16 of the best advocacy programs in the country. To receive an invitation to NCTC, law schools must demonstrate excellence in mock trial competitions and a commitment to training laws students in litigation skills. NCTC was founded with the purpose of providing law students an opportunity to develop and display the skills of an accomplished civil litigator. Student advocates must perform opening statements, direct- and cross-examinations of expert and lay witnesses, closing arguments, and adeptly argue objections based on the Federal Rules of Evidence.
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 4,200 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2019, Campbell Law is celebrating 40 years of graduating legal leaders and 10 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.