Jennifer Friend-Kelly of Wilmington Part of Widener Law Winning Mock Trial Team

2012 Feb 10

Widener Law congratulates members of the Delaware campus Black Law Students Association (BLSA) who recently won the Mid-Atlantic regional round of the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition.

The team will move on to the national competition to be held March 7-11 in Washington, D.C. The four-person team included Jennifer Friend-Kelly of Wilmington, Del. (19810), a second-year law student. She is the daughter of Deborah Kelly of Bronx, N.Y.

Download a team photo here. It shows, from left, Jahlee Hatchett, Jennifer Friend-Kelly, Kenny Williams and Roderick Thompson.

The Widener team won all five of the rounds it faced in the regional competition. The students topped teams from Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, West Virginia University College of Law, the University of Richmond School of Law, University of Virginia School of Law and Washington and Lee University School of Law.

The students tried a fictitious criminal case involving a suspected drug dealer who was accused of fatally stabbing a neighbor. Hatchett and Friend-Kelly argued the prosecution side of the case and Williams and Thompson represented the defense. The final round of the regional competition was held Saturday, Feb. 4 in the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia.

"We are proud of these students and commend them for representing Widener so well," Law Dean Linda L. Ammons said. "I wish them good luck in Washington."

The team is grateful to first-year law student Gilberte Pierre for providing logistical support and to Traci Cosby, chair of BLSA's competition committee, Professor Serena Williams, Multi-Cultural Affairs Officer Troy Riddle and alumnus Ron Graham '91 for providing critical feedback as they prepared for the competition.

The National Black Law Student Association serves as the umbrella organization that runs the competition. The Widener team won one of seven regional competitions held to narrow the field of competitors.

Widener University is a metropolitan university that connects curricula to social issues through civic engagement. The School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and holds membership in the Association of American Law Schools. Widener provides an all-around comprehensive legal education program with special certificates available from its Health Law Institute, the Law & Government Institute, the Taishoff Advocacy, Technology and Public Service Institute, and the Institute of Delaware Corporate and Business Law. Widener Law has two locations: the Wilmington, Del. campus, which opened in 1971, and the Harrisburg, Pa. campus, which opened in 1989. Visit law.widener.edu for more information.