2024 National Trial Team Newsletter!

Welcome to the quarterly Trial Team newsletter for Fall 2024!

The semester is starting, our members are back in the building, and we are excited to give you a preview of what this fall has in store for the National Trial Team!

Hello Trial Team alumni, friends, and supporters!

The fall semester is underway, and there are a lot of exciting developments for the National Trial Team! We are headed to seven amazing competitions this fall, including the National Civil Trial Competition for the first time since 2014. (Fun fact: I was on the practice team the last time we went to NCTC!) We'll also be returning to Flash Trial where last year we finished as semifinalists, Fordham Kelly where we were quarterfinalists, and Atlanta William Daniel where we partnered with the Thurgood Marshall Trial Team to finish as semifinalists. You can find a full list of our fall tournaments below.

Please keep an eye out for an email from me soon about scheduling judges for our fall practice trials. We will need many alumni to join us and give feedback to our competing and practice teams, and I hope you'll consider signing up for a trial if your schedule allows. Even if you haven't coached or judged before, your feedback is valuable and we would love to have you back in the building!

As director, the beginning of fall is one of the most exciting times of year. Our 2L members are hard at work learning the skills they need to be successful, and our 3Ls are doing an outstanding job leading the new members while sharpening and broadening their knowledge as well. The semester is off to a fast start, and I have no doubt that our members, coaches, and alumni will come together to make this a rewarding year for everyone.

Please take note of a few events listed below:

First, on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, we are going to be welcoming Trial Team alumni Judge Brendan Hurson '05 and Judge Charles Austin '12 back to Maryland Carey Law for a panel discussion and Meet & Greet reception. You can register for that event at the link later in this newsletter!

Second, we are thrilled to confirm that the 2025 National Trial Competition (NTC) Regional will be back at Maryland, and the 2025 AAJ Regional will be in-person and co-hosted by Maryland and Baltimore Law! You can find more details about both tournaments later in this newsletter, and I hope you can join us for several of these upcoming events.

Thank you for your continued support of the National Trial Team!

Sincerely,

The current members of the 2024-25 National Trial Team gathered on Sunday, August 31 for a day of scrimmages to kick off the semester! Thank you to alumni and coaches Magaly Bittner '14, Sydney Branch '24, Hannah Coffin '20, Junior Dufort '23, Pavel Glazunov '21, Stephanie Haddad '21, Lindsay Hemminger '23, Thomas Kiley '24, Taylor McAuliffe '18, Kelly Robier, Alexis Smith '24, and Rebecca Wells '24 for volunteering your time to judge the scrimmages and provide feedback to our students.

National Trial Team begins exciting fall schedule!

We are excited to have a fantastic fall schedule lined up for the team. Our fall tournaments are:

- UC Berkeley National Flash Trial Competition: September 6-8, 2024

- UCLA/San Diego First Chair Competition: September 13-15, 2024

- Quinnipiac Criminal Justice Competition: November 1-3, 2024

- Hofstra Medical/Legal Competition: November 8-10, 2024

- Loyola LA National Civil Trial Competition: November 14-17, 2024

- Fordham Judge Joseph Paul Kelly Jr. Competition: November 14-17, 2024

- Atlanta William Daniel Competition: November 22-24, 2024

Trial Team wins multiple competitions and rises in the rankings!

In case you missed this update in our last newsletter, we had an outstanding 2023-24 season and rose in the rankings for U.S. News, Fordham TCPR, and Hofstra's GAVEL Rankings. You can read more about those results and the Trial Team's rise in all three national ranking systems by clicking on the link below!

Join us on October 1, 2024 for an alumni meet & greet!

The Trial Team is hosting a Meet & Greet for alumni on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. From 5:00 - 5:45 pm in the Ceremonial Courtroom, former Trial Team members The Hon. Brendan A. Hurson '05 and The Hon. Charles D. Austin '12 will lead a panel about their Trial Team experience and how Trial Team impacted and helped their career progression. Immediately following the panel, join other alumni and students for a meet and greet reception in the Atrium.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, September 25, 2024.

Questions: For event related questions, please contact Andrew Altshuler, deputy director of development, at aaltshuler@law.umaryland.edu.

NTC and AAJ Regionals return to Baltimore in 2025

We are officially hosting both the NTC and AAJ Regionals in 2025! Please save the dates for both tournaments, as we will need alumni participation as judges and coaches.

The 2025 National Trial Competition Regional will be held at Maryland Carey Law on Friday, January 31 - Sunday, February 2, 2025. We anticipate having a reception after round four on Saturday, February 1, and I hope many of you will join us for the tournament and reception!

For the first time since 2019, AAJ Regionals will be back in-person! We are partnering with the University of Baltimore School of Law to co-host an AAJ Regional on March 6 - 9, 2025, at a to-be-determined courthouse in the greater Baltimore area. More information about this tournament will go out as soon as details are confirmed!

We are thrilled to welcome back Hannah Elster '25 for her second year on the Trial Team. You might recognize Hannah from last year's newsletter, as she was instrumental in launching this project as a 2023-24 Public Relations Co-Chair, along with Faith Kim '25.

Hannah joined the Trial Team because she wanted to develop her trial advocacy skills and pursue her goal of working as a prosecutor - and hopefully eventually a federal prosecutor - after law school.

Hannah says her best experience from her first year was delivering her opening statement at her first competition. Says Hannah, "I worked hard for weeks with my teammates and coaches to write and deliver a strong opening statement for a complex case. It was so rewarding and exciting to have the chance to do my opening statement during a competition. The support and encouragement from my teammates and coaches made this experience even more memorable."

Something you might not know about Hannah is she went skydiving in Tel Aviv during the summer before her 1L year. We are thrilled to have Hannah on the team and can't wait to see what the future holds for her!

Just because you graduated doesn't mean your Trial Team family goes away! Opeyemi Glover '15 and Maria Stamidis '17 are colleagues at the Howard County State's Attorney's Office, and they both recently welcomed new additions to their families. We are thrilled to congratulate Ope on the birth of Oyeṣola Glover and Maria on the birth of Stelios Adonis Stamidis. As you can see from the photo above, the two are becoming fast friends, and we are so happy for the Glover and Stamidis families!

The National Trial Team's 25th anniversary was recently featured in the Summer 2024 edition of Maryland Carey Law Magazine! Thank you to the Hon. Charles Austin '12 ad former director Lindsey McCulley '12 for providing quotes about your experience as an alumni of the Trial Team. You can read the full article at the link below!

Thank you for reading our newsletter, and we look forward to staying in touch.

Sincerely,

The National Trial Team