Cumberland School of Law's national trial team swept Region 6 of the National Trial Competition (NTC) Feb. 14-16, with each team winning their final round and advancing to the nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, in April. Each team went 5-0 on their way to winning the championship.
This is the ninth time in the past 12 years that a Cumberland team has won the NTC Regional Championship and the fourth time Cumberland has swept the regionals in that time period, for a total of 13 teams advancing to nationals in 12 years.
The team of third-year students Lana Bell and Jake Sauls defeated teams from Florida State Â鶹ÊÓƵ College of Law, Stetson Â鶹ÊÓƵ College of Law and Nova Southeastern Â鶹ÊÓƵ Shepard Broad College of Law in the preliminary rounds, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ of Miami School of Law in the semifinals and the Â鶹ÊÓƵ of Georgia School of Law in the finals.
The team of third-year students Dylan Scilabro, Andrew Edge and Carami Garrett defeated teams from Nova Southeastern, Emory Â鶹ÊÓƵ School of Law and the Â鶹ÊÓƵ of Georgia in the preliminary rounds, Florida State Â鶹ÊÓƵ in the semifinals and Nova Southeastern of Law in the finals.
Dylan Scilabro won Best Overall Advocate for the preliminary rounds and Best Advocate for his final round. Lana Bell won Best Advocate for her final round.
The teams were greatly assisted by third-year student Savannah Holaday and second-year students Emily Higdon, Aham Nwosu, Nick Patti and Rachel Williams, who served as witnesses during the competition.
The teams were coached by Judge Jim Roberts '94 and Craig Shirley '19.
“Cumberland is blessed to have extremely talented and hard-working students who are dedicated to becoming practice-ready professionals and the best advocates they can be for their future clients. I am so proud of this group and very thankful for their contributions to the Cumberland advocacy legacy,” said Judge Roberts.
Cumberland hosted Region 8, Feb. 7-9, at the Jefferson County Civil Courthouse. Region 6 was hosted by Stetson Â鶹ÊÓƵ.