Students Preparing for National Mock Trial Competition
Four University of La Verne College of Law students practice weekly on a criminal case involving a man who got into a playground fight, struck his head on the ground and died days later.
The case is not real, but the stakes related to it are.
Garros Chan, Thomas Reynolds, Gregory Garcia and Trevor Gastelum placed 3rd at the Western Regional Black Law Student Association’s Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition in San Diego in January. That earned them a spot in the national competition set for March 9-12 in Baltimore.
“Our team did very well, especially because this was our very first competition as second-year law school students,” said Chan, who plans to pursue criminal law.
Also earning accolades during the event were College of Law students Maria Ward and Yolanda Jones. Ward was named Board Member of the Year for her role as Southern California Sub-Regional Director of the Western Regional Black Law Student Association. Jones earned the Future Leading Lawyer Award, said Jendayi Saada, team adviser and Assistant Dean of the Center for Academic and Bar Readiness. Another student team comprised of Jason Smith and Cierra Wilson placed fourth in the moot court competition.
The mock trial team hopes to follow in the footsteps of last year’s team, who won Best Brief honors in the national competition, Saada said. Earl Roberston III and Sajdah Bryant also won Best Team and Best Brief at the regional competition.
“I’m extremely proud of all of the effort and hard work that our students put in,” Saada said. “I have a lot of confidence in their performance for the nationals.”
The criminal case the regional competition centered on will be used again in the national competition, but with some twists, Chan said. None of the students will know how the case will be different until two weeks before the competition.
Until then, students have been gathering once a week with their coach, Christian Nicholson, to prepare, taking turns as prosecutor, defense attorney and witnesses. The students have had some exposure to the roles from regular coursework, but the competitions are different because their competitors are not classmates.
“We don’t know exactly how they’re going to answer questions,” Chan said.
The team feels confident they will do well in Baltimore.
“We will build on what we learned at the regional level,” Chan said.
