Karla Castañeda Ornelas
Mock Trial competition winner, specialist in women's issues, competition evaluator, and trainer for ABA ROLI courses
In 2015 Karla Castañeda Ornelas (center) was a member of the winning team from the Universidad de Guanajuato for ABA ROLI’s second annual National Mock Trial Competition. This team also won first place at the regional round of this same competition.
Aside from ABA ROLI’s competition, Karla participated in other mock trial competitions in the Latin America region, such as the 2014 and 2015 International University Mock Trial Competitions in Argentina— where she was part of those winning teams as well. She mentions that participating in the ABA ROLI competition helped her promote and develop the litigation skills that were taught in the university classes on criminal justice. While she had an oral litigation class at the university, it was the mock trial competition that helped turn all this theoretical knowledge into something practical.
Karla has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Universidad de Guanajuato. She later studied a master’s degree in Legal Argumentation from the University of Alicante in Spain and the University of Palermo in Italy. She took a course on "Research on Sexual Torture against Women with a Gender Perspective” that was offered by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission and also took the ABA ROLI litigation training courses.
ABA ROLI’s Mock Trial Competition helped Karla fast track her career. She was able to start working at the Guanajuato State Prosecution Office at a very young age, focusing on women issues. She has been a trainer for ABA ROLI in the Criminal Sciences Investigation Workshop, overseeing the topic of “interviews to sexual crime victims” and explaining the protocol on how to judge with a gender perspective. In addition to the ABA ROLI workshops, she has also been a trainer in preliminary hearings, oral trial hearings, and advanced direct examination and cross examination techniques. She has also been an evaluator for the ABA ROLI National Mock Trial Competition.
Fanny Toledo Guillermo
Mock Trial competition winner, professional litigator interested in working in the public sector, and competition evaluator
In 2018, Fanny Toledo Guillermo was a member of the winning team of ABA ROLI’s fifth annual National Mock Trial Competition. This team represented the Universidad Marista de Mérida.
Fanny notes that participating in this competition contributed to her professional development because working as a litigator she was able to use the correct techniques in oral trials, initial hearings, and intermediate hearings that she learned while training and participating in the competition.
Fanny has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Universidad Marista de Mérida. In addition to taking courses offered by ABA ROLI, she is currently studying for a LLM degree with a specialization in Oral Litigation from the University of California Western School of Law.
After attending an ABA ROLI job fair in Yucatán in 2019, she considered it an enriching experience since she met various justice sector operators, including representatives of state prosecutions.
His team from the 2019 competition wanted to organize a local competition at their own university, the Universidad de Guadalajara. With help from ABA ROLI, they were able to plan, organize, and hold the first local Mock Trial Tournament of the Universidad de Guadalajara. José Luis along with his former teammates are organizing the second edition of this local competition.
José Eduardo Rives Lagunes
Former participant of the ABA ROLI mediation competition, coach, professor, ABA ROLI program officer and promoter of ADR and women’s economic empowerment.
José Eduardo Rives Lagunes was a participant in the first ABA ROLI annual National Mediation Competition in 2016, with his team placing seventh among the eight participating teams. The following year, in 2017, which introduced a regional phase, his team got the third place in the regional round and was the runner-up in the final national round.
Eduardo has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid. He also has a certificate degree in education from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán and has studied mediation and conflict resolution in another training institute. He is currently studying a master's degree in Constitutional Law and Amparo at the Universidad Modelo, Campus Mérida.
Eduardo began teaching classes as a professor at the Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid, the same university he represented in the ABA ROLI competition and where he studied his bachelor’s degree. At this university, the Department of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms was established, which was integrated with mediation, conciliation and, sometimes, restorative practices issues. The faculty of this department, including Eduardo, worked with the law school, but was also in charge of resolving conflicts in high schools and in other university departments. Another innovation from this same university was the creation of an ADR workshop. In this workshop, students were taught theoretical matters related to ADR, and there was also practical instruction where students learned to carry out sessions in mediation and conciliation, and restorative boards. This workshop was a very good way to prepare the students for mediation competitions.
The Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid had an agreement with a state penitentiary, to bring good practices on how to resolve conflicts through participatory dialogue in this rehabilitation center.
Eduardo was a coach to multiple teams that participated in the ABA ROLI National Mediation Competition. In 2019, a team coached by Eduardo was ranked fifth overall at the national level, and in 2020 he was the coach to four teams, one of these latter teams positioned itself as the fourth team at the national level. In addition to being a coach for teams in mediation competitions, Eduardo has participated as an evaluator in a mediation competition and as a trainer for mediation courses.
Eduardo considers ABA ROLI a second university, given what he has learned as a participant and coach. In early 2021, he joined the ABA ROLI field staff in Mexico as a Program Officer in ADR. He worked on the planning and organization of the sixth annual National Mediation Competition, which today is considered an ADR competition because it includes conciliation sessions and restorative boards. Additionally, he has provided support to other program activities, which includes the implementation of mediation and restorative justice workshops. Eduardo also joined the Legal Reform Fund project, in which he is working directly with the ABA ROLI office in Washington, DC. This project aims to help the economic empowerment of women in Mexico and Latin America.
Luis Eduardo Castillo Cruz
Former participant of the ABA ROLI Mock Trial competition, current justice sector operator, and in 2020 he coached two teams that reached the national phase of the competition.
Luis Eduardo Castillo Cruz (center) is a former participant of the ABA ROLI’s fourth annual National Mock Trial Competition in 2017. In the regional phase, his team placed second and thus qualified to participate in that year’s national round. Luis Eduardo has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, the same university he represented in the competition.
According to him, participating in a competition like the one organized by ABA ROLI helps in the growth of students and gives participants the skills to become a better professional. Additionally, he considers this competition as a great window of opportunities and knowledge. Luis Eduardo currently works in the Special Anticorruption Prosecution Office of the state of Oaxaca. One of the evaluators from the competition was impressed with Luis Eduardo's performance in the competition and decided to invite him to work with him and currently that person is Luis Eduardo's boss.
To this day, Luis Eduardo incorporates the skills he learned as a participant in the Mock Trial competition in his professional career, which includes case management, case investigation development, and preparation of criminal process hearings.
For ABA ROLI’s seventh annual National Mock Trial competition in 2020, Luis Eduardo coached two teams of students from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, the same university from which he graduated. Luis Eduardo worked tirelessly to coach these teams, with the students as committed and dedicated to their preparation for the competition as he was. For a few months, they dedicated several hours a day to prepare, usually starting after Luis finished his work day till past midnight, and most weekends. All their hard work paid off, as the teams both placed in the top four in their regional rounds (first and third), allowing them both to qualify for the national round of the competition.
Mock Trial competition winner, specialist in women's issues, competition evaluator, and trainer for ABA ROLI courses
Aside from ABA ROLI’s competition, Karla participated in other mock trial competitions in the Latin America region, such as the 2014 and 2015 International University Mock Trial Competitions in Argentina— where she was part of those winning teams as well. She mentions that participating in the ABA ROLI competition helped her promote and develop the litigation skills that were taught in the university classes on criminal justice. While she had an oral litigation class at the university, it was the mock trial competition that helped turn all this theoretical knowledge into something practical.
Karla has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Universidad de Guanajuato. She later studied a master’s degree in Legal Argumentation from the University of Alicante in Spain and the University of Palermo in Italy. She took a course on "Research on Sexual Torture against Women with a Gender Perspective” that was offered by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission and also took the ABA ROLI litigation training courses.
ABA ROLI’s Mock Trial Competition helped Karla fast track her career. She was able to start working at the Guanajuato State Prosecution Office at a very young age, focusing on women issues. She has been a trainer for ABA ROLI in the Criminal Sciences Investigation Workshop, overseeing the topic of “interviews to sexual crime victims” and explaining the protocol on how to judge with a gender perspective. In addition to the ABA ROLI workshops, she has also been a trainer in preliminary hearings, oral trial hearings, and advanced direct examination and cross examination techniques. She has also been an evaluator for the ABA ROLI National Mock Trial Competition.
Fanny Toledo Guillermo
Mock Trial competition winner, professional litigator interested in working in the public sector, and competition evaluator
Fanny notes that participating in this competition contributed to her professional development because working as a litigator she was able to use the correct techniques in oral trials, initial hearings, and intermediate hearings that she learned while training and participating in the competition.
Fanny has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Universidad Marista de Mérida. In addition to taking courses offered by ABA ROLI, she is currently studying for a LLM degree with a specialization in Oral Litigation from the University of California Western School of Law.
After attending an ABA ROLI job fair in Yucatán in 2019, she considered it an enriching experience since she met various justice sector operators, including representatives of state prosecutions.
Currently, Fanny works as a litigator in a law firm in Mérida, Yucatán. This firm specializes in litigation in criminal matters and “amparo” (which refers to protection of constitutional rights). She has work experience in the judiciary of the state of Yucatán. She is interested in working in the public sector, either in a state prosecution or the national prosecutor's office.
She has been an evaluator in the oral litigation competitions of ABA ROLI in 2020 and 2021. Her main motivation is to share with the next generations of law students what she learned as a participant, and to convey good litigation techniques under a uniform criterion.
Arturo Gómez Domínguez
Former participant of Mock Trial competition, coach at a distance, PhD student and a current justice sector operator
Arturo Gómez Domínguez was a participant in ABA ROLI’s third and fourth annual National Mock Trial Competitions, 2016 and 2017, respectively. For these two competitions, his team was among the eight best teams at the national level. He also participated in the 2015 National Oral Trial and Preliminary Hearings Competition organized by the California Western School of Law.
He is originally from Juchitán de Zaragoza in the state of Oaxaca. Arturo has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores del Istmo de Tehuantepec and a LLM degree with a specialization in oral litigation from the California Western School of Law. Currently, he is studying for a PhD in human rights and oral litigation from the Universidad IEXPRO and is in the process of finishing his doctoral thesis.
He was a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores del Istmo de Tehuantepec— the same university where he studied his bachelor’s degree. Previously, he worked in a law firm where he worked on civil, family, commercial, criminal, labor, and administrative law issues. During the pandemic, he attended some virtual ABA ROLI Job Fairs, which led to a job offer from the Prosecutor's Office of the State of Oaxaca. He accepted it and moved to the capital of the state of Oaxaca.
In 2021, Arturo was a coach for a team from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca that participated in a regional round of the ABA ROLI National Mock Trial Competition. What was more remarkable was that he worked as a remote coach to a team from another state. The team was from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and he coached them virtually during the selection phase and the regional phase of the competition. It was not until the regional round in Pachuca, Hidalgo that he had the opportunity to meet the team members in person for the first time. All of this occurred before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Mexico and before many of the Program's activities were carried out remotely to follow social distancing measures during the pandemic.
As a participant in the ABA ROLI competitions, Arturo was able to meet many colleagues and build his network of lawyers. He mentions that the competition has impacted his career as a criminal justice system operator because he gained a comprehensive understanding of the criminal justice system.
Yair Suárez Siordia
ADR facilitator, a former champion, and now evaluator of the ABA ROLI Mediation Competition
In 2017, Yair Suárez Siordia participated in his first ABA ROLI National Mediation Competition, where his team placed first in the regional round and fourth in the national round. Then in 2018, his team was victorious, becoming the national champion in the nationwide competition. After that, he participated as a coach for a few of the mediation teams, leading to him coaching the sixth placed team at the national level. This team represented the Universidad de Guadalajara, the same university where Yair studied.
Yair decided to focus his work on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms in criminal justice, where he has been working for over a year in the criminal unit of the Jalisco Alternative Justice Institute. He was an evaluator in the 2021 ABA ROLI Competition.
Yair thanks ABA ROLI for the skills and knowledge he gained during his time as a competition participant and as a coach because he is able to apply them to his day-to-day activities in his current job and his own professional development within the field of mediation.
María José Oseguera Narváez
Researcher, professor, coach, trainer and evaluator of Mediation and Restorative Justice
María José Oseguera Narváez participated in ABA ROLI’s second and third editions of the annual National Mediation Competition, 2016 and 2017, respectively. In 2017, her team advanced to the national round of this competition after it was able to secure fourth place in the regional round. Undoubtedly, her participation in this competition had a lasting impact on María José. She had a paradigm shift in her personal and professional life, where she decided to refocus her career on issues of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Her undergraduate thesis was on ADR mechanisms and the analysis of their implementation in the state of Chiapas. She is currently studying for her PhD and is doing some research related to restorative justice. She is also a teacher at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, the same university where she studied for her law degree, and where today she teaches a class on ADR Mechanisms. She wants her students to have a different and more broad perspective of what criminal justice is.
María José was a coach for a team from the same university, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, and in 2020 this team was the national champion in the ABA ROLI Competition. In 2021, she will be an evaluator in the ABA ROLI Competition. She has collaborated with ABA ROLI as a trainer in the mediation and criminal negotiation courses and in the mediation training of trainers workshops. María José and four students from the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, including the two members of the team that won the ABA ROLI Mediation Competition in 2020, created a Law Study Center that is mainly focused on ADR mechanisms and to a lesser degree on oral litigation. This Study Center shares didactic materials, capsules, and videos on criminal matters to students of the university and the state of Chiapas, and other interested people.
José Luis González
Former participant of the ABA ROLI Mock Trial competition with work experience in an Anticorruption state Prosecution office, and an organizer of a local Mock Trial competition.
José Luis González was a participant in the ABA ROLI’s sixth annual National Mock Trial Competition in 2019. In the national championship round his team made it to the semifinal stage and was ranked fifth overall— in the regional phase his team placed third.
José Luis is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and is about to graduate from the Universidad de Guadalajara with a bachelor’s degree in Law— the same university he represented at the competition. Currently, he is studying a Public Administration and Political Science bachelor’s degree at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He describes his participation in the ABA ROLI competition as one of the most enriching experiences he has had as a student.
He interned in the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office of the state of Jalisco. Among his tasks were helping build case files and the analysis of the investigation data from the disclosure of evidence in preparation for the criminal process hearings, which enabled him to put into practice the knowledge he acquired in the litigation competition.
She has been an evaluator in the oral litigation competitions of ABA ROLI in 2020 and 2021. Her main motivation is to share with the next generations of law students what she learned as a participant, and to convey good litigation techniques under a uniform criterion.
Arturo Gómez Domínguez
Former participant of Mock Trial competition, coach at a distance, PhD student and a current justice sector operator
He is originally from Juchitán de Zaragoza in the state of Oaxaca. Arturo has a bachelor’s degree in law from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores del Istmo de Tehuantepec and a LLM degree with a specialization in oral litigation from the California Western School of Law. Currently, he is studying for a PhD in human rights and oral litigation from the Universidad IEXPRO and is in the process of finishing his doctoral thesis.
He was a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores del Istmo de Tehuantepec— the same university where he studied his bachelor’s degree. Previously, he worked in a law firm where he worked on civil, family, commercial, criminal, labor, and administrative law issues. During the pandemic, he attended some virtual ABA ROLI Job Fairs, which led to a job offer from the Prosecutor's Office of the State of Oaxaca. He accepted it and moved to the capital of the state of Oaxaca.
In 2021, Arturo was a coach for a team from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca that participated in a regional round of the ABA ROLI National Mock Trial Competition. What was more remarkable was that he worked as a remote coach to a team from another state. The team was from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and he coached them virtually during the selection phase and the regional phase of the competition. It was not until the regional round in Pachuca, Hidalgo that he had the opportunity to meet the team members in person for the first time. All of this occurred before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Mexico and before many of the Program's activities were carried out remotely to follow social distancing measures during the pandemic.
As a participant in the ABA ROLI competitions, Arturo was able to meet many colleagues and build his network of lawyers. He mentions that the competition has impacted his career as a criminal justice system operator because he gained a comprehensive understanding of the criminal justice system.
Yair Suárez Siordia
ADR facilitator, a former champion, and now evaluator of the ABA ROLI Mediation Competition
Yair decided to focus his work on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms in criminal justice, where he has been working for over a year in the criminal unit of the Jalisco Alternative Justice Institute. He was an evaluator in the 2021 ABA ROLI Competition.
Yair thanks ABA ROLI for the skills and knowledge he gained during his time as a competition participant and as a coach because he is able to apply them to his day-to-day activities in his current job and his own professional development within the field of mediation.
María José Oseguera Narváez
Researcher, professor, coach, trainer and evaluator of Mediation and Restorative Justice
José Luis González
Former participant of the ABA ROLI Mock Trial competition with work experience in an Anticorruption state Prosecution office, and an organizer of a local Mock Trial competition.
José Luis is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and is about to graduate from the Universidad de Guadalajara with a bachelor’s degree in Law— the same university he represented at the competition. Currently, he is studying a Public Administration and Political Science bachelor’s degree at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He describes his participation in the ABA ROLI competition as one of the most enriching experiences he has had as a student.
His team from the 2019 competition wanted to organize a local competition at their own university, the Universidad de Guadalajara. With help from ABA ROLI, they were able to plan, organize, and hold the first local Mock Trial Tournament of the Universidad de Guadalajara. José Luis along with his former teammates are organizing the second edition of this local competition.
José Eduardo Rives Lagunes
Former participant of the ABA ROLI mediation competition, coach, professor, ABA ROLI program officer and promoter of ADR and women’s economic empowerment.
Eduardo has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid. He also has a certificate degree in education from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán and has studied mediation and conflict resolution in another training institute. He is currently studying a master's degree in Constitutional Law and Amparo at the Universidad Modelo, Campus Mérida.
Eduardo began teaching classes as a professor at the Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid, the same university he represented in the ABA ROLI competition and where he studied his bachelor’s degree. At this university, the Department of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms was established, which was integrated with mediation, conciliation and, sometimes, restorative practices issues. The faculty of this department, including Eduardo, worked with the law school, but was also in charge of resolving conflicts in high schools and in other university departments. Another innovation from this same university was the creation of an ADR workshop. In this workshop, students were taught theoretical matters related to ADR, and there was also practical instruction where students learned to carry out sessions in mediation and conciliation, and restorative boards. This workshop was a very good way to prepare the students for mediation competitions.
The Universidad Modelo, Campus Valladolid had an agreement with a state penitentiary, to bring good practices on how to resolve conflicts through participatory dialogue in this rehabilitation center.
Eduardo was a coach to multiple teams that participated in the ABA ROLI National Mediation Competition. In 2019, a team coached by Eduardo was ranked fifth overall at the national level, and in 2020 he was the coach to four teams, one of these latter teams positioned itself as the fourth team at the national level. In addition to being a coach for teams in mediation competitions, Eduardo has participated as an evaluator in a mediation competition and as a trainer for mediation courses.
Eduardo considers ABA ROLI a second university, given what he has learned as a participant and coach. In early 2021, he joined the ABA ROLI field staff in Mexico as a Program Officer in ADR. He worked on the planning and organization of the sixth annual National Mediation Competition, which today is considered an ADR competition because it includes conciliation sessions and restorative boards. Additionally, he has provided support to other program activities, which includes the implementation of mediation and restorative justice workshops. Eduardo also joined the Legal Reform Fund project, in which he is working directly with the ABA ROLI office in Washington, DC. This project aims to help the economic empowerment of women in Mexico and Latin America.
Luis Eduardo Castillo Cruz
Former participant of the ABA ROLI Mock Trial competition, current justice sector operator, and in 2020 he coached two teams that reached the national phase of the competition.
According to him, participating in a competition like the one organized by ABA ROLI helps in the growth of students and gives participants the skills to become a better professional. Additionally, he considers this competition as a great window of opportunities and knowledge. Luis Eduardo currently works in the Special Anticorruption Prosecution Office of the state of Oaxaca. One of the evaluators from the competition was impressed with Luis Eduardo's performance in the competition and decided to invite him to work with him and currently that person is Luis Eduardo's boss.
For ABA ROLI’s seventh annual National Mock Trial competition in 2020, Luis Eduardo coached two teams of students from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, the same university from which he graduated. Luis Eduardo worked tirelessly to coach these teams, with the students as committed and dedicated to their preparation for the competition as he was. For a few months, they dedicated several hours a day to prepare, usually starting after Luis finished his work day till past midnight, and most weekends. All their hard work paid off, as the teams both placed in the top four in their regional rounds (first and third), allowing them both to qualify for the national round of the competition.
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