February 17, 2016

TAHP Team Named Finalists at Regional Competition

At a regional round of the Texas Young Lawyers National Trial Competition held in San Diego February 4 to 7, Southwestern’s team of Amanda Brooksban, Roza Egiazarian and Shawn Halbert performed very well. The TAHP team were finalists, finishing ahead of teams from 22 law schools in California, Nevada and Hawaii, defeating competitors from UCLA, Pepperdine, Loyola, and University of San Diego.

“I think what allowed for us to get so far was our ability to think on our feet, stick with our theory, and advocate zealously,” Egiazarian said. “In addition to Professors Seki and Esposito, who are always our coaches, we had the incredible honor of being coached by Phillip Bather, Sara Greco, and Mackenzie Brown.”

Adding to the challenge during a morning round, one of the judges ruled that a critical piece of evidence was inadmissible, which forced Egiazarian and Halbert to alter their entire defense case on the spot, without letting the competition or the judge and jury know. Under pressure, they excelled and beat Loyola, their competitors in that round, 3-0.

The team argued a negligence case where the plaintiffs alleged that a widow’s pilot, flying from Kansas City to Dallas, crashed and died when he attempted to make an emergency landing on the defendant’s ranch, which was equipped with a Pilot Activated Lighting system. However, the lighting system was inoperable on the night of the accident. The defense argued that the cause of the accident was due to pilot error.