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By the Juris Education Interview Team
Amanda Steele is the President and Captain of the Rider University Mock Trial team.
Mock trial is an intercollegiate competitive activity that simulates a trial in court. Each year, nearly 500 colleges and universities across the country receive a detailed case packet from the American Mock Trial Association. These simulated legal cases alternate between criminal and civil. Every college team prepares its own witnesses and attorneys, and then presents their case against other college teams before judges, who score each team’s presentation and determine the winner. A typical mock trial round involves opening statements from both sides, then the presentation of plaintiff/prosecution witnesses (with cross-examinations from the defense), then the presentation of defense witnesses (with plaintiff/prosecution cross-examination), and finally closing statements.
Building strong public speaking skills, adaptability, and personal confidence are some of the biggest benefits of competitive mock trial. At its core, mock trial is a public speaking activity that requires the ability to think on your feet. Even with all of the preparation and studying that goes into competition, you never truly know what your competitors will throw at you. The challenge of mock trial is responding in-round to these unknown challenges with poise and confidence. Building robust public speaking skills, as well as personal confidence and adaptability, is not only beneficial to legal practice. This activity hones the most important parts of effective communication in ways that benefit your academic career, personal life, and professional relationships.
The most challenging and rewarding aspects of college mock trial go hand-in-hand. Succeeding in this activity requires a lot of hard work and commitment. Competing as either an attorney or a witness—or both—involves significant studying and memorization, both of the AMTA case materials and the material prepared by your team. However, this hard work is what makes mock trial so rewarding. Receiving positive feedback from judges and opposing teams, earning individual or team awards, and watching yourself and your team improve and grow makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Because of this activity’s focus on presentation, competitive mock trial helps undergraduate students to expand their comfort zone and become confident in many of the skills involved in effective litigation. Public speaking and debate, critical thinking and argumentation, and improvisation are all valuable skills for practicing attorneys. The format of mock trial also helps students build familiarity with basic courtroom procedure and the skills involved with analyzing/evaluating evidence. As a bonus, the mock trial competition rules are directly modeled after the US federal rules of evidence; this allows undergraduate students to gain a foundational understanding of these essential rules before ever stepping foot in a law school.
The short answer is have fun! While there is a lot of work involved, mock trial is a uniquely theatrical and creative competition activity. My coach, Alan Medvin, describes mock trial as “half law and half theater.” Fun characters, dramatic objections, props, and plot twists are as important to this activity as learning the rules of evidence and studying case material. Get to know your team, build relationships, and make memories!
Not all American colleges have an undergraduate mock trial program. If you’re currently enrolled at a college or in the process of applying, you should be able to check their website to see if they have a team. You can also check the American Mock Trial association website, which has a running list of participant schools (https://www.collegemocktrial.org/about-amta/member-schools/). However, even if your school doesn’t have a mock trial program, that’s not the end of the world! Rider University’s mock trial team only started in 2022, and we’ve already made it to the national semi-finals (also known as ORCS in the mock trial world). Whether you find an existing mock trial team or build one yourself at your school, approaching this activity with enthusiasm and a willingness to learn will allow you to reap all the benefits I’ve described above.
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