Jordan Ostroff, a 2012 graduate of the Barry University School of Law, represented Barry’s trial team at the prestigious and unique National Top Gun Mock Trial Competition held June 6-10 and hosted by Baylor Law School. The competition, now in its third year, is limited to the top 16 trial teams nationwide based on their records during the year. Barry’s trial team has been invited to participate in Top Gun for all three years of its existence.
Unlike most mock trial competitions, a single student represented each school instead of the usual four. Based on his performance in competitions this year, Ostroff was chosen to represent Barry at the Top Gun competition. He was coached by Margaret Garner, a 2010 Barry graduate and the first Barry advocate to compete at the Top Gun Competition in 2010.
Also unlike most mock trial competitions, where participants receive the case problem seven to eight weeks in advance, Top Gun provided the details of the mock case just 24 hours before the competition began. The case problem involved employer liability for the wrongful death of an employee killed during a botched robbery attempt, based on a theory of negligent hiring and retention of the employee accused of masterminding the robbery during which the plaintiff was killed.
In the first two preliminary rounds, Ostroff faced two of the top-ranked trial advocacy teams in the country: Georgetown University and Maryland University. Both rounds came down to a split decision between the three judges scoring the advocates, with Ostroff on the losing end. In the round against the advocate from the University of Maryland, the presiding judge, a sitting District Court Judge, awarded Ostroff a perfect ballot, one of only a handful of perfect ballots awarded throughout the entire competition.
Ostroff continued in the preliminary rounds and defeated advocates from Duquesne University and Loyola University to end the preliminary rounds with a 2-2 record. He was not among the four advocates to advance the semifinals (Yale University, University of Denver, Suffolk University, and Drexel University) but his won-loss record in the preliminary rounds combined with winning one ballot in the rounds he lost gave Ostroff a top-10 finish at the prestigious competition.
“Jordan should be congratulated on a job very well done,” said Garner. “His level of professionalism and high degree of skill reflected not only his own personal excellence as an advocate, but also the high caliber of his education, coaching, and experience while participating in Barry's trial team.”
For more on the Top Gun competition, visit http://www.baylor.edu/law/advocacy/index.php?id=76255.