The Tower will shine orange April 21 to honor two teams of law students who took home national championships at the 2014 Lone Star Classic Mock Trial Competition and the 2015 UMKC Show Me Challenge.
The Lone Star Classic invitational competition was hosted by St. Mary’s University in San Antonio last October 16-18. The 2015 UMKC Show Me Challenge was hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in Kansas City on April 9-11.
Third-year students Daryoush Behbood and Brandon Bishoff defeated Campbell Law School in the semifinal round to pave the way for Kiera Kilday and Chandler Raine to beat Faulkner, the defending Lone Star Classic Champion, in the final round. The Texas team was seeded No. 1 throughout the competition and was coached by Nadia Ramkissoon, staff counsel for Farmers Insurance at Clark, Price & Trevino.
UT Law team members Brandon Bishoff, Sandra Jonas, Ewaen Woghiren, and alternate Chandler Raine, all third-year students, defeated Texas Tech University in the final round, with Jonas and Woghiren winning Best Advocate awards. The Show Me Challenge team was coached by Jackie Borcherding Rylander of the Williamson County District Attorney’s Office, and James Winters, J.D. ’13, of the Travis County Attorney’s Office. This was Borcherding’s and Winter’s first time coaching together and the first time UT Law participated in this competition.
The UT Law Advocacy Program sends mock trial teams to seven or eight competitions annually. This year’s interscholastic mock trial team includes 32 third-year students and 51 second-year students. Texas mock trial and moot court teams have won 21 national championships since 2000.
