Tatiana Terry ’19 to serve as inaugural Director of Competitive Advocacy

Photo of Tatiana Terry

RALEIGH — Campbell Law School alumna Tatiana Terry ’19 will begin serving the institution as the Director of Competitive Advocacy effective August 2, 2021, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced. 

Terry, one of the most decorated advocates in the law school’s 45-year history, will take over Campbell Law’s award-winning program from Assistant Professor Anthony Ghiotto. The Campbell Law Advocacy Program has been ranked among the very best in the nation by multiple publications and has earned one international championship, ten national championships, five national runners-up, nine national semi-finalists, nine regional championships, and at least 20 national individual best advocate awards. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Tatiana back to the law school,” Leonard said. “She is a favorite of our law students having taught a trial ad seminar and coaching several teams as well as our Top Gun competitors since graduating. Her combination of trial advocacy experience and winning championships combined with her competitive spirit make her the perfect fit for our first Director of Competitive Advocacy.”

During her time at Campbell Law, Terry served as a dual-advocate on both the client counseling and mock trial teams. As a member of the Client Counseling team, Terry was a semi-finalist at the ABA National Client Counseling Competition. Terry and her teammate were later named champions at the ABA Client Counseling Regional Competition, ABA National Client Counseling Competition and the International Client Consultation Competition, where Terry and her teammate represented the United States of America.

As a mock trial advocate, Terry earned the individual award for best Direct-Examination at the National Civil Trial Competition, Best Overall Advocate at National Black Law Student Association’s (NBLSA) Regional Mock Trial Competition, best Cross-Examination at NBLSA’s Southern Regional Mock Trial Competition and was a semi-finalist at the South Texas Mock Trial Challenge. Terry and her teammates were named champions at the NBLSA Regional Mock Trial Competition and NBLSA National Mock Trial Competition. To complete her list of championships, Terry was named the 2019 Top Gun Mock Trial Competition Champion, making her the first African-American and third woman to win the most challenging, invitation-only mock trial tournament in the nation. Campbell Law School and Yale Law School are the only law schools with two Top Gun championships.  

While Terry was a member of the Mock Trial Team and Client Counseling Team, she also simultaneously served as an Honor Court Justice, president of the Campbell Law Innocence Project and vice-president of the Campbell Law Black Law Students Association (BLSA). She was named the inaugural Eva Clayton Fellow for volunteering innumerable hours assisting with voter registration efforts and helping at polling locations across North Carolina. At graduation, Terry received the faculty’s Robert. A. Jenkins Award for her outstanding accomplishments in advocacy, the ALI CLE Scholarship & Leadership Award and was inducted in The Order of Barristers wherein membership is granted to those in a national honor society recognizing outstanding performance in the art of advocacy. 

After graduation, she accepted a Civil Litigation Associate Attorney position at Hendrick, Gardner, Kincheloe, & Garofalo, LLP, while simultaneously serving as a Mock Trial Coach and on the Board of Visitors at Campbell Law. She comes to the law school from her position as an Assistant District Attorney in Wake County.  

Terry earned her bachelor of arts, cum laude, in criminology from North Carolina State University. She is married to her husband, Quintin, who is the coordinator of Sport Programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They live with their dog, Nike, in Raleigh.   

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 4,400 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2021, Campbell Law is celebrating 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 12 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.