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November 17, 2017

The University of Kentucky College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Board (TAB) Mock Trial team of Matt Boggs and Madeline Moss won the 2017 Kentucky Intrastate Mock Trial Competition, held November 11-12 at Fayette County District Court.

UK Law had eight members compete in the annual competition that rotates between the three Kentucky law schools. Each school fielded two teams, for a total of six sets of competitors. During the championship round, Boggs and Moss defeated UK Law classmates Garrett Gabehart and Ryan Mosley in a 3-2 split decision. Both teams won every judges ballot until they met each other. 

“I feel the tournament was immensely successful. The final round was against our fellow UK teammates, so in addition to being the most challenging, it was also the most fun! Our entire team and our coaches put in hours and hours of work in order to be as prepared as we possibly could be, and it feels great to have won and made them all proud,” said Moss.

UK Law students MacKenzie DeSpain, Faith Gingrich-Goetz, Ashley Land and Aubrey McGuire served as trial witnesses to provide support to the teams.

Additionally, Ryan Mosley was named Best Advocate of the tournament.

“The work to prepare for these trial tournaments is pretty exhausting, so I was very humbled to be named best advocate,” said Mosley. “I have to give a lot of credit to my amazing witness, Ashley Land. It felt like Garrett was pulling us through the hardest moments during the trials, though, so he would've gotten my vote.”

Allison Connelly (UK Law ’83), Director of the Legal Clinic and James and Mary Lassiter Professor of Law, serves as the faculty advisor for TAB. Paco Villalobos (UK Law ’11), an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Fayette County, has served as the coach of the college’s highly successful trial team since 2011. Jordan Dongell (UK ’12) served as his assistant coach this year.

“I believe it is a testament to the quality of exceptional and bright students we have at the University of Kentucky College of Law,” said Villalobos. “These two teams were about as even as it came and either would have been a deserving winner. These students will make excellent attorneys in the future and I am overjoyed that the hard work they put into this competition is reflected in the results.”