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U.Md. law school wins courtroom championship
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University of Maryland School of Law students Jessica Butkera, Rachel Simmons, Jason Downs and Sig Libowitz hold their trial team national championship trophy.
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The competition wasn’t covered live on ESPN or one of the networks, but perhaps it should have been: The University of Maryland captured its first national championship of the new school year last weekend in Florida.
It’s too early for an Orange Bowl win — and the Terps already have two losses on the gridiron, anyhow. Instead, it was Maryland’s School of Law, based in Baltimore, winning the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s 17th annual Tournament of Champions, that brought the first hardware of the season home for Terrapin fans. Nearly all of the nation’s 300 law schools participate in the mock trial competitions. Squads compiling the best records during the previous three years make it to “the Sweet 16.”
Third-year law student Sig Libowitz described the victory in tight, come-from-behind sports-infused analogies.
“You have to be able to respond to every wrinkle the defense sends at you,” said Libowitz, who teamed with Jessica Butkera on Maryland’s top prosecution unit.
For example, he described a situation where one opposing defense team questioned whether phone records showing a call made from their defendant’s cell phone actually meant their client had placed the call.
“We had to bring the detective back on the stand — and make sure it was clear he had gotten the defendant to acknowledge he had made those calls himself,” Libowitz said. “You have to be able to think on your feet.”
For all the fun, balloons and cake at the celebration on the West Baltimore Street campus Wednesday — no, the judge’s bench wasn’t torn down after the victory — the qualifying competitions and championships are taken very seriously. The win also means the school will receive an automatic invitation to the championships for the next two years and will host the 2008 court title matches.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” said Rachel Simmons, a third-year law student, who teamed with Jason Downs on Maryland’s defense team and won Top Advocate honors. “Not many Tier I law schools also have the top trial advocacy team.”
Maryland beat out such prestigious law schools as Georgetown, George Washington and Washington Universities.
The school’s two-person prosecutor and defense teams went head-to-head against similar squads from rival institutions in a case based on the facts and testimony from an actual Florida action fictionally referred to as State of Atlantica v. Bruno Bombay. The real defendant in the case was found guilty by a jury in four hours, Simmons said. She noted in the mock court, a ruling of innocent or guilty was not given. But she was sure, she joked, “My client was found innocent every time.”
Libowitz, also an actor with recurring roles on “Law and Order” and “The Sopranos,” said the win “took teamwork, talent, oral skills — and a gut-check.”
rcassie@baltimoreexaminer.com
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2:16 PM MST on Tue., Jul. 29, 2008 re: "UM's business school ranks among best"
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frogseayouye said:
look water glass german are deliver
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Examiner Reader said:
Thier are two other companies in N.Y. harbor that offer school and a job.
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Examiner Reader said:
These schools do not educate folks with degrees adequate for many BRAC jobs
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Examiner Reader said:
Please note that Judge Clifton Gordy is a Associte Judge in the Circuit Court for BALTIMORE CITY not Baltimore County.
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Q & A said:
Answer: Mudd, Mikulsi, and O'Malley. Question: Name three rteasons not to attend the U of Md.
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Julie Evans, University of Maryland, Baltimore said:
In your facts about UMB, you left out the majority of the students (4,837) on campus which are in graduate and professional degree programs: Physicians 621 Pharmacists 480 Dentists 456 Social Workers 840 Lawyers 830 Nurses 788 Physical therapists 194 Other graduate (PhDs) 628
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Examiner Reader said:
i think it is great hoping for nothing but success
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Ori Shabazz said:
If not solved in primary or secondary, Black males (Black people) must settle the identity question during post secondary work. Black male and female students in Baltimore must be INSPIRED to learn through innovative means. Black male students have to be taught the very basics of education and SOCIAL skills.
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Examiner Reader said:
I believe the problem with low attendence of black males in college is a cultural issue not a fairness issue.
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Examiner Reader said:
You mean all it takes to get black males to go to college is have black professors? Wow, I wish it was that easy. There is a nation-wide trend for more women than men in post-high school education; right now the gap is about 55% women and 45% men and getting wider. How does the issue of the race require different tactics than simply being a male?
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Examiner Reader said:
As a retired teacher, I am happy to see black young men with a continued positive influence post- high school. I do hope that the program developes with enormous success and extend itself to young black adolences prior to exiting High School. We need to give them a little motivation during the middle school experience. If that is not an option, well, I guess those wilth the inner drive will continue graduating for some institude beyond High School will do so! But, statistics are evidence, the we are losing them before High School! Grades 6th - 8th have been the points of deciding whether to lead or to follow. Our black youth need you, as a group positive black role models to implement some incentives to motivate their self-esteem and ethnocentric pride! May God bless you in this endeavor that may enlighten others to join your cause that can make difference in our city and others!
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