Recent alumna Carson Sadro ‘20 has been chosen to participate in Baylor Law’s virtual Top Gun National Mock Trial Competition on May 27-31. Based on the student’s prior year overall competition performance, Baylor chooses one mock trial team member from each of the top 16 schools with the best trial advocacy programs in the country.

"An invitation to this competition speaks to the enormous strides we’ve taken as a program in the last few years,” Sadro says. “Everyone on the South Carolina Law Mock Trial Bar has been working tirelessly to push our program into the national spotlight. It means more than words to reach that goal surrounded by people who love Mock Trial as much as I do.”

The mock trial program has seen a resurgence in the last decade after coming close to being eliminated completely as an offering at South Carolina Law. Thanks to the dedication of head coach Brett Bayne, an alumnus of the program, the team now proudly holds the number four spot in the ranking of best trial advocacy programs in the country.

For Sadro, this invitation is the culmination of a string of trial advocacy accolades throughout her second and third years at South Carolina Law. Not only has she been a part of both regional and national championship winning teams, she has been the winner of multiple individual awards including Best Cross Examination at the 2019 Puerto Rico Trial Advocacy Competition, Outstanding Advocate at the 2020 Region 5 Championship for the National Trial Competition, and South Carolina Law’s D. Reece Williams III Trial Advocacy Award. 

Despite her individual recognition, however, Sadro maintains that the success of the mock trial program is a product of the entire team’s hard work and ultimately reflects the collegial nature of the trial advocacy program as a whole. “This is nothing short of a huge team effort and I hope that I can represent them well.”

The competition can be viewed live here. Sadro competes at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST on Friday, May 29.