Anna Bninski ‘23
Staff Editor
In unprecedented times, with 1Ls entering law school in a uniquely weird way, extracurriculars have completely changed. Y’all get the picture. In today’s funky, pandemic context, the Mock Trial E-Board went above and beyond to put together a tournament that would give 1Ls a chance to do a very typical law school thing in very untypical circumstances. Over Zoom, of course, with a batch of video-conferencing procedural specifications. Here is one bewildered 1L’s tale.
I had tried out for Mock Trial with a blithe spirit on a sunny day back in September. I knew that I didn’t know anything about how to do mock trial, but, at that point, I didn’t really have a sense of how much I’d need to learn. I can confidently say that I have yet to learn at least 93 percent of it.
That’s through no fault of my team (woohoo Team 3!) or of our JAG attorney coaches, who kindly took the time to look over our materials and walk us through lots of etiquette and objections in preparation for the Solicitor General Toby J. Heytens Trial Advocacy Tournament, October 15-17. Over the past couple weeks my teammates and I chewed over the fact pattern, worked on both sides of the case, tried to remember 50,000 things about hearsay, and spent a lot of time questioning each other on Zoom and leaning into recalcitrant witness personas. (Frankly, it absorbed a lot more time than I expected, even though our captain JP Baratta ’23, the only one of us who’d ever done mock trial before, shouldered more than his share.)
I was blessed with the opportunity to play the case’s defendant (a very large, very obviously unsavory man) in the first round, and brought all the excessive enthusiasm of a former theater kid. (“I appreciate that,” our judge, Maj. Todd Chard, US Army, told me at the end of my mid-cross-examination rant about being unable to remember the specifics of grand jury testimony because I was a person, not a robot. “But do answer the questions.”)
My heroic teammates managed to convince our lone jury member to find me innocent on all counts.
“Doesn’t that mean you win?” my boyfriend texted me. I explained that we were, in fact, narrowly defeated through a tie-breaker and would not be moving on to the semi-finals.
“I don’t understand how this works at all,” he replied, and later elaborated, “That seemed incredibly stressful and I would never want to do it. But you definitely should do it again.”
He was correct, not sadistic. Since I was a witness for the defense in that first round, I didn’t advocate at all. Advancing meant swapping sides and swapping roles. I’d hate to throw in the towel before trying out both roles. But when folks (my roommates) asked me if I was disappointed at losing the chance to deliver what reliable sources (me) described as a “bomb” closing argument for the prosecution, I had to reply honestly: not really.
Because even just working with my teammates and our coaches, I’d had an opportunity to learn some basics about approaching a case, structuring examinations, and that there are another fifty zillion things still to learn about hearsay. Plus, getting to collaborate with classmates was a serious bonus, especially during this semester where getting to know people is hard and weird.
I can only speculate about what it’s like to do mock trial during a normal semester. My guess: It’s hard and stressful and educational, just like it was this time around—but a serious amount of fun, too.
Also: major congratulations to the tournament winners, Zoe Li, Natalia Heguaburo, Grace Platt, Riley Segars (all '23)!
Results:
Individual Awards:
BEST WITNESS: Grace Platt '23
BEST ADVOCATES: Elizabeth Lapp '21, Natalia Heguaburo '23
Team Awards:
SECOND PLACE: Elizabeth Lapp '21, Autumn Adams-Jack '22, Jennifer Craddick '23, John Lawrence '23
FIRST PLACE: Zoe Li, Natalia Heguaburo, Grace Platt, Riley Segars (All '23).
The UVA Law Mock Trial Program expresses thanks and appreciation for the judges of the Sixteenth Circuit, White and Case, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, and all participating practicing attorneys for their support of the program. Special thanks to Solicitor General Toby J. Heytens ’00 for judging the final round and for being a true friend to the UVA community.
Pictured: Grace Platt, Zoe Li, Natalia Heguaburo, and Riley Segars, all '23, crushed the competiton and won the first Zoom Mock Trial event at UVA!. Photo Courtesy of Alex Law '21.
President of UVA Law Mock Trial, Alex Law ’21, added: “[T]his tournament would not have happened without tireless work from the rest of the executive board. Thank you to Matthew Cooper '21, Amanda Rutherford '22, and Joshua Hassell '22. It was important to all of us that we create an event so students could still have a classic law school experience this fall and this tournament achieved that goal.”
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amb6ag@virginia.edu