Barry University, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law won first place at the 2012 National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. At the competition are (from left) competition evaluators John Lag, Stephen Komie, Judge Stanley Sacks of the Circuit Court of Cook County; Barry team members Aboubakr Maaroufi, Ryan Sainz, Ciara Harris and Victor Zamora; Barry Professor Elizabeth Megale; John Marshall Professor Ronald Smith, competition director; and Brendan O’Brien.
A team from Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law in Florida was named the national winner at the 2012 National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. Second place winners represented Harvard Law School.
Semi-finalists represented Creighton University School of Law and Golden Gate University School of Law.
Barry University student Aboubakr Maaroufi won the Best Advocate Award.
At the competition, the teams prosecuted and defended a law student accused of killing an undocumented worker, possibly in connection with the worker stealing the defendant’s winning lottery ticket.
The program, co-hosted by The John Marshall Law School and the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association, ran March 29 through 31, 2012, and brought together teams from 18 law schools across the United States and from Ateneo de Manila School of Law in the Philippines and Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law.
“The teams were so outstanding, the trial round so close, that at the conclusion of the final arguments, the trial Judge, Judge Stanley Sacks of the Circuit Court of Cook County, paused and then said, ‘Wow!’. He told the student advocates from Barry and Harvard that this was among the best trials—and perhaps the best trial—he had ever witnessed,” said John Marshall Professor Ronald Smith who organized the 22nd annual event.
John Marshall had the support of more than 125 judges and lawyers from the Chicago area who evaluated the teams over the three-day competition.
