The UW-Law School mock trial team won the national championship of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) mock trial competition. The AAJ competition is among the largest mock trial competitions in the country with 224 teams participating. Some of those teams included Duke, Marquette, Northwestern, Notre Dame, University of Virginia, Cornell, Georgetown, University of Texas-Austin, Stanford, NYU and UCLA. After winning the regional competition (a first in UW history,) the UW team joined 13 other teams to compete for the national title.

After besting formidable opponents like NYU and Pepperdine in the preliminary rounds, the UW team defeated Georgetown in the championship round. The winning team included:

Andrew Rima
Hanna Kolberg
Kerry Gabrielson
Matt Van Keulen

Each team member will receive a $2,500 scholarship, complimentary copies of acclaimed books on trial advocacy, and complimentary airline tickets and hotel accommodations to attend the 2010 AAJ convention in Vancouver, Canada.

The winning team was taught, guided and encouraged by Adjunct Faculty Rhonda Lanford (Habush Habush and Rottier) and Ellen Berz (State Public Defenders Office.)

Submitted by Erin Syth on April 7, 2010

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