Lindsey Cloud, Director

Professor Cloud has been an adjunct faculty member at Catholic Law since 2014. In addition to her work with the National Mock Trial Team, she also teaches Trial Practice. In 2024, the student body named her Adjunct Professor of the Year.

When she’s not working with students in the courtroom, Professor Cloud heads the legal training practice at KNP Communications. In that capacity, she leads presentation skills training programs at many of the country’s top BigLaw firms, as well as practitioners in advocacy and public policy. She has provided presentation skills training for NASA engineers, National Parks Superintendents, recording industry executives, and healthcare professionals.

A former performing artist, Professor Cloud earned a B.F.A in Theatre Performance from Miami University before graduating cum laude from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. In law school, she was an active member of the National Trial Team, and was selected to be the Student Commencement Speaker for the class of 2012. Upon graduation, Professor Cloud served as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Institute for Justice. She has represented clients in both criminal and civil litigation, and is a member of the Maryland Bar.

 

Vania M. Smith, Associate Director

Ms. Smith joined the National Mock Trial Team program as a coach in 2021 after a highly decorated career in trial competition, which included winning the national championship at the National Trial Competition (NTC). As a student, Ms. Smith advanced at every tournament in which she competed, beginning with a quarterfinal finish at Golden Gate Law School’s In Vino Veritas in 2017. She finished as a semi-finalist and was awarded the best cross-examiner in the same competition in 2018. That same year, Ms. Smith was a regional semi-finalist at the NTC regional qualifiers. The following year, Ms. Smith was part of the team that won the NTC regional championship. One month later, at nationals, her team won Catholic Law’s first ever NTC national championship. Ms. Smith also individually won the award for best advocate in the entire competition. As a result of this tremendous accomplishment, she was invited to the highly selective Top Gun tournament hosted by Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She capped off her mock trial career as part of the team that made it to the final at Denver Law’s Summit Cup trial competition, where she won an “Outstanding Advocate” award. In March 2022, Ms. Smith's paper entitled, “Advocacy Competitions or Courtroom Cosplay? The Case for Rejecting Theatrics and Rewarding Authenticity at Law School Mock Trial Competitions,” won the Stetson Advocacy Writing Competition, and was presented at the Educating Advocacy Teachers Conference that same year. As an academic, Ms. Smith was published in the Catholic University Law Review and the Stetson Journal of Advocacy and the Law. She has also guest lectured for Catholic Law on Construction and Real Estate Law, and for the University of Calgary on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

Ms. Smith is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Maryland Bar, and is an associate at Ruda, Hirschfeld, Papera & Hoffman in Bethesda, MD.