St. Mary's
The National Team
Building Legal Skills for the Real World
Specialties & Courses
Dean AJ’s courses blend practical training with proven strategies to prepare students for success in the courtroom and beyond.
Trial Advocacy
Focuses on developing persuasive courtroom strategies, from opening statements to closing arguments, to effectively represent clients at trial.
Trial Skills
Provides hands-on training in the fundamental techniques of litigation, including witness examination, evidence presentation, and jury communication.
Arbitration
Teaches practical approaches to resolving disputes through arbitration, emphasizing preparation, advocacy, and procedural mastery outside the courtroom.
Negotiation
Equips students with tools and strategies to reach favorable agreements by balancing legal analysis with interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
Assistant Dean for Advocacy and Conflict Resolution Programs | Hardy Law Professor and Professor of Practice of Law
A.J. Bellido de Luna
Dean A.J. Bellido de Luna, known as Dean AJ, is a nationally recognized leader in legal education and trial advocacy. As Associate Dean for Advocacy Programs at St. Mary’s University School of Law, he has devoted his career to shaping the next generation of lawyers. He is passionate about developing advocacy programs that blend real-world skills with academic excellence.Â
With a reputation for innovation and mentorship, Dean AJ has guided countless students in mastering trial and appellate advocacy. His work extends beyond the classroom, building programs that earn national recognition for their impact and rigor. Dean AJ’s leadership reflects his belief that advocacy is both an art and a calling, empowering students to use the law as a tool for justice.
Professional Accomplishments
Recognized Excellence in Law and Teaching
Dean AJ’s professional accomplishments highlight a career dedicated to advancing justice, education, and the practice of advocacy.
- Assistant Dean, School, approximately 100 hours spent per year. Coaching the traveling National Teams; coaching or supervising all off-campus advocacy teams who have a compensated coach; managing internal moot courts and similar competitions; managing the National Team (formerly known as the External Advocacy Program); and advising the Board of Advocates in their assistance with these endeavors. Conflict Resolution includes: the review of and curriculum for all dispute resolution courses, a first step supervisor role for all Dispute Resolution Adjunct Professors and Instructors, and oversight of a resolution process before going to the Associate Dean—full management and supervision of students seeking a Certificate of Concentration in Conflict Resolution Studies. Fill in as needed in Dispute Resolution courses and tasked with the development of new programming. Responsible for staffing the dispute resolution courses and for planning the dispute resolution curriculum. Additional duties include teaching courses, counseling students, assessing and grading written work, managing data systems, developing curricula, and managing the budget. Manage the national reputation for dispute resolution, including promoting the program, recruiting participants, and, when appropriate, hosting conferences, CLEs, and other programming to enhance the program’s national standing. The responsibilities of the Director of Conflict Resolution Studies can be reassigned as needed by the Dean of the Law School at the end of any calendar year, and the Assistant Dean will return to the role of Assistant Dean of Advocacy Programs. (July 1, 2023 – Present).
- Program Director, Department, approximately 100 hours spent per year. Hardy Director of Advocacy Programs and Service Professor of Law in the School of Law. Responsible for coaching the traveling National Team; coaching or supervising all off-campus advocacy teams that have a compensated coach; managing internal moot courts and similar competitions; managing the National Team (formerly known as the External Advocacy Program); and advising the Board of Advocates in their assistance with these endeavors. My responsibilities also include teaching a section of Trial Advocacy each Fall and Spring semester, one of which may be an evening section every fourth or fifth semester, as determined by the Dean of the School of Law. Any teaching beyond this, including summer teaching, will be compensated at the normal overload rate for full-time faculty members. (January 2, 2017 – Present).
- Coaching the International Moot Court Team – Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition, Association for the Organization and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, 2 participants. (March 27, 2025 – April 7, 2025).
- Prepared students to compete in the International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. Prof. Marion Reilly and I coached the students. We spent more than 150 hours preparing for and competing in this competition, which was held live in Hong Kong.
- The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration. Students from all countries are eligible (students from 80 countries participated in the 32nd Vis Moot). The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The contract provides that any dispute that might arise is to be settled by arbitration in Danubia. This country has enacted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and is a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The arbitral rules to be applied rotate yearly among the arbitration rules of co-sponsoring institutions of the Moot.
- Coaching the International Moot Court Team – Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, International Law Students Association, 4 participants. (February 19, 2025 – March 23, 2025).
- Prepared students to compete in this competition. Prof. Marion Reilly and I coached the students. We spent over 100 hours preparing for and competing in this competition, which was held live in Portland, Oregon.
- Jessup is the world’s largest moot court competition, with participants from roughly 700 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions. The Competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. One team is allowed to participate from every eligible school. Teams prepare oral and written pleadings arguing both the applicant’s and respondent’s positions in the case.
- The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is an advocacy competition for law students. Teams of law students compete against one another through the presentation of oral and written pleadings to address timely issues of public international law in the context of a hypothetical legal dispute between nations. The Compromis is the springboard for the Jessup Competition. Written by leading scholars of international law, the Compromis is a compilation of agreed-upon facts about the dispute that is submitted for adjudication to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. After the Compromis is released, students begin researching and preparing arguments for both sides of the dispute, drafting and editing written pleadings, called “memorials,” and practicing oral presentations. Each team prepares two written memorials and two 45-minute oral presentations, one for each party to the dispute (the “Applicant” and the “Respondent”). Teams argue alternately as Applicant and Respondent against competing teams before a panel of judges, simulating a proceeding before the International Court of Justice.
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- Committee Member, Non-Tenure Track Hiring and Review Committee. Yes, appointed 40. (August 1, 2024 – Present).
- Responsibilities: Evaluate and recommend hiring and promotion for n o n -tenure track professors.
- Accomplishments: Our committee is the “first review committee” of candidates, or the “Promotion Committee” comprises all of the faculty eligible to vote on the candidates (all faculty with a rank equal to or beyond the rank to which they are applying).
- For the candidates for promotion to Associate Professors of Practice, that group is: all current Associate Professors of Practice, Clinical Associate Professors of Law, Associate Professors of Law, Professors of Practice, Clinical Professors of Law, and Professors of Law. For the candidate for promotion to Clinical Associate Professors of Law, that group is: all current Clinical Associate Professors of Law, Associate Professors of Law, Clinical Professors of Law, and Professors of Law.
- Committee Member, American Bar Association – LEDR Committee. Yes, appointed 50. (February 2023 – Present).
- Responsibilities: I am a member of the ABA LEDR Committee, which facilitates discussions and reviews abstracts for the annual ABA meeting, Dispute Resolution Section.
- Accomplishments: The committee reviewed hundreds of proposals and facilitated several listening sessions throughout the years.
- Committee Member, American Bar Association – Mediation Competitions Committee. Yes, appointed 50. (August 2022 – Present).
- Responsibilities: I am a member of the ABA Competitions Committee for Mediation and Conflict
Resolution. The committee formulates rules and develops ten case problems for the regional and national finals. - Accomplishments: The committee revitalized this lost competition in 2022, holding the first competition in 2023. More than 60 teams competed in the first year, and nearly 100 teams competed in 2025.
- Responsibilities: I am a member of the ABA Competitions Committee for Mediation and Conflict
- J.D., University of Maryland School of Law, 2004
- B.S., John Hopkins University, with Honors, 2000
- Maryland
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Distinguished Faculty Award, St. Mary’s University Teaching, University, This award is given annually by the
university alumni association. (May 2025). - Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy, Stetson Law, EATS, 2025.
- Staff Member of the Year by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law’s Student Bar Association Recognition, 2014
- Faculty of the Year Community Award from the Homeless Person’s Representation Project in Baltimore, Maryland, 2013
- Impact Award presented by the Black Law Student’s Association of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, 2010
- Order of the Barrister, 2004
- Expert Report Rules and the Daubert Trilogy (Nat’l Inst. for Trial Advoc. ed., 3d ed. forthcoming May 2022).
- Remote Advocacy: A Guide to Survive and Thrive. Mary Jo Barr, A.J. Bellido de Luna, Elizabeth Boals, Robert Guttman & Traci Buschner, Rebecca Diaz Bonilla, Sidney Kanazawa, Brent Newton, Jules Epstein, Kelly K. Robinson, Christian H. Hendrickson, Allison T. Mikulecky, Whitney Untiedt and Ashley Willcott Chapters(3) Time Management, Ethics, Netiquette, National Institute for Trial Advocacy Publishers. 2020
- State v. Gray, 2016 National Institute of Trial Advocacy With Joseph E. Taylor
- One Memorable Cross Examination Lesson (Nat’l Inst. for Trial Advoc. ed., forthcoming 2022)
- Collective Wisdom: When to Impeach with an Inconsistent Statement 3 (Nat’l Inst. for Trial Advoc. ed., 2021)
Celebrating Achievements Together
Milestones & Memories
Highlighting the significant events, successes, and moments that showcase Dean AJ and his teams’ dedication to excellence in advocacy and education.
2025 ABA Negotiation National Champions
St. Mary’s University School of Law National Dispute Resolution Team were named national champions at the American Bar Association National Negotiation Competition Finals .
No. 1 Ranked St. Mary’s Law National Team
For the first time in St. Mary’s University School of Law history, the Advocacy Program, known as the National Team, has tied for the No. 1 ranking in the nation by the American Bar Association
2024 ABA Client Counseling National Champions
St. Mary’s University School of Law National Dispute Resolution Team were named national champions at the American Bar Association National Negotiation Competition Finals .
2023 National Trial Team Wins National Trial League Competition
The St. Mary’s University School of Law National Trial Team became national champions Jan. 22 by beating some of the toughest advocacy teams in the nation at the National Trial League Competition.
2022 The National Moot Court Team Wins the Chicago Bar Association Moot Court Competition
St. Mary’s University School of Law National Dispute Resolution Team were named national champions at the American Bar Association National Negotiation Competition Finals .
2022 - The National Trial Team Wins the National Trial League Competition
The St. Mary’s University School of Law National Trial Team became national champions Jan. 22 by beating some of the toughest advocacy teams in the nation at the National Trial League Competition.
2020 The National Moot Court Team Wins the Leroy R. Hassell Sr. National Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition
St. Mary’s University School of Law National Dispute Resolution Team were named national champions at the American Bar Association National Negotiation Competition Finals .