Advocacy Teams Wrap Up an Outstanding Year  

Texas Law’s nationally recognized Advocacy Program offers students opportunities to sharpen their trial and appellate advocacy skills through coursework and competitive experience. During the 2024–25 academic year, advocacy teams once again established themselves as formidable competitors in more than 20 mock trial and moot court competitions nationwide.  

There’s simply no substitute for practicing these skills under pressure with outstanding, well-prepared opponents on the other side.

Mike Golden,
Director of Advocacy

Two Texas Law teams took top honors at national competitions: the Georgetown White Collar Crime Invitational team and the Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial team. Two other teams were finalists, placing second at their events: the TEX-ABOTA Best in Texas Voir Dire and the Summit Cup. In addition, one mock trial and one moot court team won regional titles: at the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition and the Giles S. Rich IP Moot Court. 

“Tournament wins and individual performance awards are wonderful, and of course we celebrate them enthusiastically, but these achievements are signs that we are accomplishing our true purpose of producing exceptional courtroom lawyers,” says Director of Advocacy Mike Golden. “That being said, the 20-plus tournaments we compete in each year represent some of the best possible training that we could expose students to—there’s simply no substitute for practicing these skills under pressure with outstanding, well-prepared opponents on the other side.” 

Texas Law students work with practicing lawyers and judges who serve as instructors, mentors, coaches, and judges, attending advocacy program events and interacting with students, another benefit to participation. 

Below are most outstanding accomplishments of Texas Law advocacy teams during the 2024-25 academic year. 

The White Collar Crime Invitational is a three-day competition hosted by the Georgetown University Law Center Barristers’ Council that features a federal criminal mock trial focused on issues in the corporate-professional sector. Taking top honors in a 15-team field, the Texas Law contingent won the event for the third consecutive year. Team members were 2L Jessie B. Bolton and 3Ls Hayden Hill, Kacey Simmons, and Alen Thomas.   

Each student advocate conducts both the direct and cross examination of a witness and presents either the opening statement or the closing argument of the case. A judge and a “jury” of experienced trial attorneys evaluate advocates on their professionalism in making objections and handling exhibits. Kiera Lee Kliday ’15 of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and Keith Henneke, assistant United States attorney at the Western District of Texas, served as coaches for the winning team. 

Texas Law students won the national championship of the Constance Baker Motley mick trial, hosted by the National Black Law Students Association. The team was comprised of members of Texas Law’s chapter of the NBLSA, the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. Teams qualified for the national tournament, which was held in Atlanta in March, based on their regional tournament finish.   

 The winning team consisted of 2Ls Raychel Polk and Cortez Walters, as well as 1Ls Akram Abbadi, Nahom Tulu, and Nicholas Wesley. In addition, 3L Ruona Odharo competed at regionals but was unable to join the team at nationals. The team was coached by Liliana Jayme ’22, an attorney at the Hull Firm in Austin,  and Assistant Travis County District Attorney Habon Mohamed. 

The mock trial team made it to the finals of the TEX-ABOTA  (American Board of Trial Advocates) Best in Texas Voir Dire Competition, an advocacy simulation focused on jury selection skills. A trio of 3Ls—Morgan Bates, Anders Huizenga, and Alex Campagna—won five rounds in a row to reach the finals. Bates earned Best Opening Statement, and the team took home the Civility Award, voted on by their peers. David Henderson ’01, a partner at Ellwanger & Henderson and adjunct professor at Texas Law, and Mason Pastrana ’19, a trial lawyer with Just Well Law, acted as alumni coaches.  

Texas Law’s team finished as finalists at the prestigious Summit Cup, a mock trial competition hosted by the University of Denver that honors 12 teams from around the country that each won significant tournaments the prior academic year. Texas Law team advanced through four rounds of competition, showcasing their skill and dedication against teams representing some of the nation’s top law schools. Team members were 3Ls Finn Burke and Noah Hoffman and 2Ls Emily Layton and Aleyna Young. In addition, 2Ls Chloe Cropper and Raychel Polk served as alternates. Emily Ogden ’23, a family law attorney at Goranson Bail Ausley in Austin, and Jay Ellwanger ’01, a partner at Ellwanger & Henderson in Austin, served as alumni coaches. 

Texas Law’s mock trial team won the American Association for Justice regional competition in March and qualified for nationals. In one of the toughest regionals in the country, the 3L team of Bates, Campagna, Hill, and Simmons bested Harvard, Texas Tech, and Baylor. The team—coached by Ryan Ziminskas ’20, an attorney in Scott + Scott’s Austin office, and Sharon Baxter, shareholder and managing attorney at MVBA—then traveled to Atlanta to compete in the national competition in April. Every member of this year’s squad experienced success with another advocacy team this year. Hill and Simmons were part of the Georgetown White Collar Crime championship team in the fall, while Campagna and Bates were finalists at the TEX-ABOTA Best in Texas Voir Dire.  

Champion, Giles S. Rich IP Moot Court Regional (March 2025) 

The Texas Law team won the Giles S. Rich IP Moot Court regional tournament in Houston, earning the right to advance to nationals. The competition—named for the late Honorable Giles Sutherland Rich, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit—is sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. This year’s case was an appeal on a patent case. 

The team consisted of 3Ls Saketh Meka and Jinhua Zhang, who beat defending national champion Duke University in the final round to be crowned regional champions. Meka was selected as the winner of the Best Oral Advocate award. 

The winning pair went on to reach semifinals at the national event in Washington, D.C., in late April. They were coached by Dean Munyon ’01, a shareholder at Kowert, Hood, Munyon, Rankin & Goetzel. 

Annual Advocacy Awards 

Each year, the advocacy program presents four individual awards to top graduating students.  

• Simmons received the Niemann Cup, which represents the overall best student advocate in the graduating class. Simmons was on two winning teams this year alone: the Georgetown White Collar team and the AAJ team. As a 2L, Simmons was on the MLK Jr. National Civil Rights Mock Trial championship team. 

• Bates captured the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Mock Trial Award, which goes to the top mock trial student. Bates was on the winning AAJ team, as well as the team that reached the finals of the TEX-ABOTA Best Voir Dire competition. 

• Meka who competed on the IP team, received the Justice Mack Kidd Outstanding Senior Appellate Advocacy Award.  

• Temi Fayiga won the SBOT (State Bar of Texas) Appellate Section Award for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy. Fayiga won this year’s Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Midwest Regional hosted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was on the Duberstein championship team last year. 

In addition, 12 students were inducted into the 2025 Order of Barristers and 16 received Advocacy Program scholarships. 

The Advocacy Program was profiled in a December 2024 story.