St. John’s To Host Atlantic Regional Round of the National Mock Trial Tournament

Please be advised that Atlantic Regional Round of the 2008 National Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament will be held today at 3 p.m. on the Queens Campus.

St. John’s University will host the Atlantic Regional Round of the 2008 National Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament February 22-24.  27 teams representing 12 colleges and universities will compete during the three-day event for six bids to advance to the National Tournaments.

Four rounds of trial competition in a courtroom setting are scheduled with each case involving a criminal sentencing hearing.  The top two teams will be awarded automatic bids to the National Championship Finals in Minneapolis on April 5-6, while teams finishing third through sixth will advance to the Intermediate Round and vie for one of 64 spots in the National Championship. 

St. John’s will enter two teams in this year’s Regional rounds with participants representing all four classes and three different colleges (College of Professional Studies, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Peter J. Tobin College of Business.)  In its most recent competition, the St. John’s Mock Trial team placed tenth in the Columbia University Big Apple Invitational Tournament.  Two individual competitors for St. John’s also garnered individual awards, as Tobin College of Business junior Kudakwashe Chibanda was named an Outstanding Attorney and St. John’s College sophomore Hadia Ali Sheerazi was honored as an Outstanding Witness. 

The remainder of the field is comprised of teams representing Columbia University, New York University, DeSales University, Dickinson College, Fordham University (Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses), Princeton University, Rutgers University, Seton Hall University, University of Pennsylvania, City Tech (CUNY), Cornell University, Iona College, Queensborough Community College and Syracuse University. 

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Reilly, Assistant Director of Media Relations at St. John’s, by calling (718) 990-5789, or by e-mail to reillye@stjohns.edu.  For the latest news on St. John’s University, visit www.stjohns.edu/news.