Published on March 11, 2025
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In March, Samford University Cumberland School of Law’s National Trial Team traveled to Chicago, where they won the Midwest Region of the American Association of Justice Student Trial Advocacy Competition, the second oldest and one of the most prestigious trial competitions in the country. With the win, the Cumberland team will advance to nationals in Atlanta in April. The win marks the fifth straight year that Cumberland has won the regional competition. In total, seven Cumberland teams have advanced to nationals in the past five years.
Cumberland’s team of third-year students Omega Adams and Blake Cordova won all five of their trials with the assistance of second-year student-witnesses Hall Billings and Mitch Dolen. The team of third-year student Nicole Fried and second-year students Lauren Golston, Tristan Gardner and Allison Jordan narrowly missed the semifinals, losing out on tiebreakers.
This year, the Cumberland teams were the only team from the South to compete in the Midwest Region, facing off against other teams from Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.
“This win is not only a testament to the hard work and talent of our students and the dedication of our tremendous coaches who volunteer countless late night and weekend hours to preparing our students for the practice of law, but also proves that our methods of training law students translate to any area of the country,” said Judge Jim Roberts, JD ’94, director of National Trial Teams. “These students and coaches embody our goal of creating practice-ready professionals, and I could not be prouder of all of them.”
The teams were coached by Julie McMakin, JD ’09; Michael Eldridge, JD ’12; Curtis Seal, JD ’17; and Bella Colombo, JD ’20; and Sara Williams, JD ’06.
“While I was absolutely proud of how this entire group performed during the competition, I was even prouder of their professionalism when interacting with other teams, which is a core value of our program,” Williams said. “They are a group of students the entire Cumberland community should be proud of.”
As the team prepares for nationals, the Cumberland community celebrates yet another milestone in its storied history of advocacy excellence. Cumberland School of Law’s advocacy programs are nationally recognized for excellence: 6th for Trial Advocacy by U.S. News & World Report (2024), 3rd in the Gavel Rankings for fall 2024, 4th in the Trial Competition Performance Rankings for 2023-24 (3rd overall since 2016), and 8th in the top ABA law school competition teams in arbitration, negotiation, client counseling, mediation and appellate advocacy (2024).
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks with the second highest score in the nation for its 98% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.
