The Trial Advocacy Team from the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover
Has Great Success in the 2007
Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition

Massachusetts School of Law’s Trial Advocacy Team won 2nd and 4th place in the 2007 Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition for the Northeast region of the National Black Law Students Association. There are two winners for each region and the other winner was the first place team of Syracuse University School of Law. MSL and Syracuse advanced to the national finals in Atlanta with the 10 other winners from the remaining five regions across the United States. The Northeast region is comprised of the 33 law schools in New England, New Jersey and New York.

Nastajha Douglas, Dean Douglas, Darius Greene, John Martorano, Nicole Dion, Stephen Kearney, Rebecca Jadach, Syed Zaid Hassan, Allen Woodward, Karen Lucien, Pauline Leslie, Devon Cormier and Daniel Occena are the MSL team members. Associate Dean Michael Coyne, attorney and Professor Dan Harayda and Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Filippetti serve as the coaches of MSL’s Trial Advocacy team.

At this year’s regional competition at the University of Connecticut, MSL defeated teams from Harvard, Syracuse (the ultimate point winner in the finals over MSL team members Devon Cormier, Nicole Dion, Zaid Hassan and Allen Woodward), and other northeastern law schools. MSL’s team was the top ranked team after the conclusion of the preliminary rounds of the trials. MSL team member Nicole Dion was named best trial advocate of the entire competition. MSL’s team won more awards than any other law school in the Northeast regional mock trial competition.

At the national finals, MSL’s team faced teams from two of the best trial advocacy programs in the United States. Its first match was against Temple University School of Law, the 2005 national champion, and Pepperdine University School of Law, the 2004 national champion. Temple, presently ranked the number two trial advocacy program in the United States by U.S. News, lived up to their well-earned reputation. MSL’s team of Devon Cormier, Nicole Dion, Daniel Occena and Allen Woodward were equal to the task however and shone in their roles as advocates. While scores from individual matches are not released, it was clear that this match was a tossup.

In the second trial against Pepperdine, MSL’s students displayed incredible command of the evidence, law and facts while displaying great advocacy skills. The best advocate of the 2007 national competition was on Pepperdine’s team but MSL clearly demonstrated superior advocacy skills in every facet of the trial. In both matches, the teams displayed a very high level of sophistication in a highly complex federal trial with complicated evidentiary issues. Unfortunately, MSL learned the next day that its team had not earned enough points to advance to the quarterfinals. The University of Florida School of Law won the competition.

Coaches Harayda and Filippetti praised team members for their professionalism and skill as advocates. In praising the team’s performance, Dean Coyne said, “from December to the end of March this team displayed extraordinary professionalism and intelligence so that from their opening statements to their closing arguments they could show the Northeast and the rest of the United States how they truly are among the very best law students in the United States. They demonstrated that in both Connecticut and Atlanta. It was a pleasure to see the team embody MSL’s work ethic and demonstrate the fruits of that hard work and MSL’s educational program.” The faculty, students and alumni of Massachusetts School of Law have much to be proud of with their team’s performance at NBLSA’s Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition.