Mock Trial

Coach Bill Barner (J.D.) took 9 members of the Mock Trial team to Florida State University Law School in Tallahassee over Valentine’s Day weekend this spring to compete in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Regional Tournament.

In the words of Dr. Teng Li, our Department of Humanities and Politics Pre-Law Advisor “[f]or the tournament, three team members play the role of plaintiff's attorneys, and three members the defendant's attorneys; each side prepares their own witnesses. For a typical round, a team will be either plaintiff or defendant by lottery. Since the witness part is full of acting and "objections" and explanations of objections, one round can be as long as 3 hours. Every team completed a gruesome 12-hour competition schedule over the weekend.”

The team consisted of:

Plaintiff attorneys: Isabela Garcia; Angelo Nathan; and Tyler Williams.

Defendant attorneys: Zashawn Christopher; Brianna Ritman; and Sophia Wehle.

Witnesses: Yann Philips; Bryan Soudrain; and Montunique Van Staden.

Coach Barner and then team put on an impressive performance at the tournament, with Angelo winning an award for Best Attorney and Bryan winning as award for Best Witness! As Dr. Li notes, the team is poised to do even better next year noting that Coach Barner “has built an impressive team and a healthy makeup of young talents and veterans in a short time!” Congratulations to the team and to Coach Barner!