Law school hosts NTC mock trial competition

From Feb. 7 to 9, Lewis & Clark’s Northwestern School of Law, alongside the University of Oregon School of Law, co-hosted the regional National Trial Competition (NTC) at the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland. Teams from 11 law schools throughout the greater Northwest competed, and over 100 Portland-area attorneys and judges volunteered over the weekend.

This is the first year that LC Law has hosted the NTC regional competition, which also falls on the 50th anniversary of the competition. The event allows for law students to compete in mock trial — a simulated court trial where students act as attorneys, bringing forth evidence and appealing arguments to a jury.

Each mock trial team is composed of two attorneys who prepare their case for, in this competition, both the plaintiff and defense. They rely on volunteers, typically 1L students, to act as witnesses for these tournaments. Each trial runs differently, but are approximately three hours in length, during which each team delivers their opening statements, direct examinations, cross examinations and closing statements. Unlike practicing law, mock trial requires students to deliver each of these under time constraints, forcing them to be selective on what they prepare and how to present it.

This year’s regional case problem was a fictional civil trial between the plaintiff, Blake Wooden, a parent who was involved in a car accident while driving with their two children and the defendant, Saban Trucking, Inc, whose 18-wheeler struck the family car. Saban Truckin, Inc. was brought suit on two charges of negligence.

Jo Perini-Abbott is a professor of practice and director of the Center for Advocacy, which offers law students the opportunity to practice and hone their legal skills through courses and competitions. She was the lead organizer for this year’s regional competition, and described the purpose of the mock trial program.

“The real goal is to give students a … deep exposure to trial practice before they graduate, to give them a chance to really understand and practice skills of trial advocacy, standing up and making speeches, questioning witnesses, in the safety of in a competitive sphere,” Perini-Abbott said.

Six of 16 students from the LC Law mock trial team were chosen to represent the school at this year’s regional competition: Alina Stircu 2L, West Aron 3L, Molly Pettit 2L, Isaiah Putnam 2L, Jeremy Beckham 2L and Mikki Ness 2L. Based on their performance at the regional competition, two of the three teams continued on to the final rounds of the NTC competition.

These students spoke with The Mossy Log and shared their personal experiences in preparing for the competition.

“We had to really develop this case on an extremely short timeline. School started Jan. 8, and we had a month to develop both sides,” Pettit said.

On top of the short period the students had to prepare for the competition, they had to keep up with other essential responsibilities — including schoolwork.

“There’s just no real wiggle room in most law students’ schedules, unless they give credit,” Aron said. “I couldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a trial advocacy program.”

Moot Court: Mock Trial, taught by Professors Simon Whang and Abbie Tornquist, offers 3 credits for student participation in mock trial competitions. This course is offered under the Center for Advocacy at LC’s law school. 

“It was a lot of work. I definitely put a lot of my non-mock trial stuff on the back burner in preparation for this tournament, because especially in the last two weeks, we were trying to run like two scrimmages a week,” Putnam said.

Mock trial scrimmages are a full runthrough of what trials at the competition will look like. For several weeks, the three teams scrimmaged against one another to gain as much experience as possible before the actual tournament.

“One thing that I did to prepare was I recorded myself and I listened back to it like 50 times. I would go on a walk, and I just listened to my … opening statement over and over again until it felt like it was seared into my brain,” Stircu said.

The students expressed their gratitude to the coaches, volunteers and 1L students that made the competition possible, including Professor Emily Fullterton, Professor Abbie Tornquist, Attorney Charles Swindells, Attorney Charles Weber and aforementioned professors of LC Law.

“The school brought in a couple local attorneys who are fantastic. (They are) here to come in and kind of fill in as our coaches. So we had actual trial attorneys, practicing lawyers in the Portland area, kind of advising us and guiding us and helping us during our practice sessions,” Beckham said. 

Students mentioned the assistance from these resources, since Perini-Abbott, as the lead organizer for the competition, was not allowed to give students any coaching during preparation for the competition  in order to ensure that each school had an equal advantage at the competition. 

“Whenever we need practice or we need help, (our coaches) are there for us. And it’s so inspiring as a law student,” Stircu said.

LC teams took third and fourth place at the tournament, and Pettit won Best Opening Statement following the preliminary rounds. The 2Ls are looking forward to performing well at next year’s regional competition.

“We all have the opportunity to try again next year if we want. I certainly want to, because we came so close to victory, I can taste it,” Beckham said. “So next time I’m hopeful it can happen.” 

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Madison Kollar

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