Everybody has seen Suits, Law and Order, and Judge Judy — these shows give the average person a brief glance into the inner workings of the law, but have you seen our Mock Trial team? Mock Trial is a club at East that offers students the opportunity to delve into the law by being a lawyer, a witness, or an understudy. Teams are scored by jurors on how well their case is argued by lawyers and by how well the witnesses perform during the trial.
If you are into acting or studying law, Mock Trial combines the two, allowing you to make a persona for your witness. For example, Grayson Rankin-Wahlers took the personalization of his witness to heart, dressing up in a bunny suit last year to fulfill the role of Pookey Thomas, a beer salesman.
Mock Trial allows for students to get familiar with the law and become better speakers. In the first couple weeks of school, students go through a boot camp in the library, learning the difference between the two sides of a case: the prosecution and the defense. They also learn the foundations to a case, learning how to object, direct and cross-examine witnesses. Students also get to know the club president Avery Donahoe’s motto: “We’re here for a good time, not a long time.” Each November, a case packet, consisting of pages on pages of information about the case, comes out, and the team has to digest all the information and format a case theory around it. With only two months to prepare before their first trials, students waste no time, meeting after school in the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes during Lunch and Learn to make sure they are primed for the competition.
With Mock Trial being formatted as a tournament, one loss means the end of that year’s competition. However, our team here at East has been a strong competitor in this tournament, going to states last year and hoping to repeat their success in March.
