John Henry
Director, Trial Advocacy Programs
John Henry is a 1999 graduate of Loyola Law School. During his time at Loyola, John spent two years as a member of the Byrne Trial Advocacy Team, where he and his teammates won the Georgetown White Collar Crime Invitational, the National Trial Competition regional competition, and competed in the final round of that national competition. After graduation, John began his coaching career, leading teams to several regional and national championships. In addition to coaching, John worked as a Deputy District Attorney in Riverside County, where he supervised the gang and homicide units. John now serves as the Director of the Trial Advocacy Programs at Loyola. John and his wife Kamaria are the proud parents of two children.
Melissa Diaz
Melissa Diaz is a trial attorney at the Los Angeles County Office of the Alternate Public Defender. While indigent criminal defense was always her goal, she also spent her first year as an attorney representing unaccompanied immigrant children in their immigration proceedings at Public Counsel. She is a former advocate of the Byrne Team and a 2022 Loyola alum who started coaching directly after graduating. She’s passionate about developing students’ advocacy skills to allow them to better serve their clients in the future.
Roxanna Manuel
Roxanna’s practice focuses on labor and employment matters, successfully advising and representing employers in wage/hour class actions and cases involving allegations of discrimination, family leave laws, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, as well as other employment related torts, including breach of contract, unfair competition claims, trade secret theft, and employment mobility litigation. She has obtained favorable defense decisions at arbitration in several labor grievances involving tenure issues. Roxanna obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from the prestigious Yale School of Drama and she uses those skills in conveying compassion and trustworthiness in an active trial practice. Of course, her favorite part of her job is working with law students as a coach for Loyola Law School’s award-winning trial advocacy team.
Darshan Patel
Darshan Patel is a complex commercial litigator at Greenberg Traurig LLP, where his practice focuses on business torts, unfair competition and consumer protection, commercial contracts, real estate, intellectual property, and antitrust matters. He represents companies of all sizes in state and federal litigation and class actions across a range of industries. A graduate of Loyola Law School, Darshan is excited to once again coach the fantastic law students on the Byrne Trial Advocacy Team.