Spring 2018 Gavel Final Spring 2018 Gavel | Page 7

the use of the beautifully
renovated Cass County
Courthouse. Judge Racek, Cass
County Administrator Robert
Wilson, the Cass County
Sheriff's Department, and
Clerk of Court Lindsey Scheel
generously agreed to open the
doors to the courthouse for the
competition. Their assistance in
securing the required number
of courtrooms and providing
security for the event made the
competition a reality.
With the space for the
competition secured, it was
time to move on to the rest
of the planning. And that
planning was no small task.
UND School of Law Trial
Team alumnae Lori Conroy and
Aubrey Zuger 2 stepped up to the task and volunteered to serve as
tournament directors. Their past experiences as competitors at both
the regional and national levels, their unwavering commitment to the
Trial Team program at UND School of Law, and their firm belief in
the value of quality competition to build the next generation of trial
lawyers, made Conroy and Zuger the perfect fit for the tournament
directors' job. For more than six months, the two worked tirelessly,
offering their time, effort, and energy to plan the competiti on and
help the School of Law and North Dakota’s legal community shine
during this historic event. As Justice Crothers put it, “Teams succeed
through the efforts of everyone, but have no chance of achieving that
success without superior leadership. [Aubrey and Lori] organized
and executed this very major function with skill and style. And [they]
allowed us to show off the best of North Dakota.”
Conroy and Zuger worked with American
College of Trial Lawyers Fellows to secure
members of the bench and bar to fill the
170 judges’ slots needed for the competition.
Attorneys Mary Batcheller from the
United States Bankruptcy Court, Michael
Sly from Ohnstad Twichell, and Sharon
Thompson from Circling Eagle Law assisted
with recruiting the nearly 200 additional
volunteers needed for the witnesses’ slots.
In collaboration with the School of Law,
Batcheller, Sly, and Thomson reached out
to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate
students from the area, inviting them to
participate as witnesses for the competition.
They made presentations on college
campuses, spoke with college professors and
pre-law advisors, and reached out to local
community groups. They spent countless
Lori Conroy, left, and
Aubrey Zuger, right,
served as tournament
directors.
hours assembling and preparing the required number of witnesses,
and their work was instrumental to ensuring the competition’s
ultimate success.
The competition
On Feb. 9, after months of extensive planning and recruiting, the
Cass County Courthouse opened its doors to more than 75 law
students from across the region. These students were highly-skilled
advocates, who arrived in Fargo eager and ready to showcase their
advocacy skills. The competition began with 24 teams competing
in three preliminary rounds, each round featuring two teams going
head-to-head in a wrongful death case.
In the preliminary rounds, the teams took turns representing the
plaintiff in one trial and the defendant in the next, putting the
UND School of Law student Nicholas
Samuelson playing the witness role.
SPRING 2018
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