Hofstra Law Trial Advocacy Team to Be Honored for Their Success in This Year's National Trial Competition

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Several members of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University community will receive awards in recognition of their success in the Region 2 rounds of the 37th Annual National Trial Competition this year. The awards will be presented on Monday, July 30, during the New York State Bar Association’s Trial Lawyers Section Summer Meeting in Woodstock, Vermont.

“This is a nice coda to a historic year for Hofstra Law and its student advocacy programs,” said Eric Lane, interim dean and Eric J. Schmertz Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Public Service. “We are delighted with the achievements of all of our students and faculty who participated in trial advocacy competitions this year, and we hope to continue to build on these successes going forward.”

The team award will be presented to the Hofstra Law team composed of Kaitlyn Flynn 2L, Laura Kitchen ’12 and George Michel 3L, who won the title of co-Regional Winner for Region 2 last February. During the regional competition, Hofstra Law students also captured three of four possible individual advocacy awards for the preliminary rounds. Kitchen, who received two of those honors, will now receive an award for Second Place Best Advocate — All Rounds. The team competed last March in the National Trial Competition national finals in Austin, Texas, finishing in ninth place among the 28 Regional Winners nationwide.

In addition, National Trial Competition team coaches Jared Rosenblatt ’03, Gerard McCloskey ’08 and Lee Bergstein will receive the Travis H.D. Lewin Award for coaching not only the co-Regional Winner but also a second Hofstra Law team that finished as Regional Finalists. The second team consisted of Jana McNulty 2L, Philip Nash 3L and Michael Rubin ’12.

Hofstra Law was the only one of the nine law schools competing in Region 2 this year to have both its teams advance to the regional finals. “Our coaches are certainly deserving of the prestigious Lewin award,” said Professor Frank Gulino, Hofstra Law’s director of student advocacy programs. “With both of Hofstra Law’s teams reaching the regional finals — one of them named co-Regional Winner — and Hofstra students winning three individual advocacy awards for their work through the preliminary rounds, it made the choice for the coaching award easy.”

The National Trial Competition is co-sponsored nationally by the Texas Young Lawyers Association and the American College of Trial Lawyers. The New York State Bar Association sponsors the Region 2 tournament. This year, the Region 2 competition was hosted by Hofstra Law, and Gulino served as regional coordinator.