Fonda Kubiak ’94

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Coaching the Way to Success

When FONDA KUBIAK ’94 was a law student, opportunities to compete on trial teams were limited. Today, as UB Law continues to raise its profile in the nationally competitive trial arena, Kubiak has been pivotal to its success.

A longtime assistant federal public defender, and now training director, for the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Western District of New York, Kubiak has taught trial technique and specialized trial courses at the law school since 2017. She’s also instrumental in placing Pro Bono Scholars and interns in the public defender’s office.

And she has taken on the demanding work of coaching trial teams—a commitment that typically involves guiding four-person teams through eight weeks of preparation, three or four days a week, and traveling with them to competitions nationwide. The most recent team she coached placed second in a split decision at a competition hosted by the Inter American University of Puerto Rico.

“It’s an intense learning process for the students,” Kubiak says. “We spend a lot of time preparing and practicing, and it’s extremely rewarding to see their advocacy skills evolve. I enjoy watching them transition from not having any comprehension of the courtroom to knowing that they will go out into the world ready to hit the ground running.”

“We have a handful of volunteer attorneys who coach our teams,” says Jennifer Scharf ’05, vice dean for career services, who oversees the trial team program. “Fonda is the best of the best—she’s both the lawyer and the teacher everybody wants to have.”