UA Mock Trial Team Advances to National Competition

Akron, Ohio, 2005 — Two University of Akron law students will compete in the national Texas Young Lawyers Association Trial Competition March 30-April 2. The team of Rami Awadallah, of Green, and John Antel, of Parma, qualified for the national mock trial team event by emerging as co-champions of the 6th Circuit Regional Competition held in Lansing, Mich., Feb. 11-13.

A total of 24 teams will compete at the national level.

A second UA team of Chris Carino, of Hudson, and Eric Faulkner, of Orlando, Fla., was eliminated in the semi-final round at the regional competition, however, Carino won an award for the best cross exam in the preliminary rounds.

The mock trial teams are coached by trial team alumni Sean Leuthold ('95) a partner in the Bucyrus law firm of Leuthold & Leuthold; Kimberlee Kmetz ('94) of the Youngstown firm of Harshman and Bernard; and Ben Thalrose ('02) an associate in the Cleveland firm of Sutter, O'Connell, Mannion & Farchione Co.

Since 1982, UA School of Law mock trial teams have won two first-place and six second-place awards in national tournaments, and 44 regional tournaments.

In their latest rankings, “National Jurist” and “Prelaw Insider” magazines rated UA's School of Law as the second “best value” juris doctor public school program in the United States, based on tuition, bar passage rates, unemployment rate, median grants, clinic slots and faculty-student ratio.

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