Mock Trial
One of the fastest growing parts of the Prelaw Program,
and one of the most exciting, is Samford’s Mock Trial team.
We now have our first mock trial class--a one-credit course taught by local attorney Jason Wollitz. It meets once a week and is designed to teach you the skills involved in trial preparation and trial advocacy in the courtroom--making opening and closing statements, making objections and responding to objections, questioning witnesses, and planning a trial strategy. This is not only a great skills course, but it is also an excellent resume item.
The mock trial class will work on the national case in preparation for the American Mock Trial tournament. This year, it is a criminal case. Every student is eligible to take the class--freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. Prelaw students are encouraged to sign up for at least a year of mock trial. But all students are welcome. The course will meet Thursday nights from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in Room 205 of North Divinity Hall. For more information, call Dr. Mark Baggett at 726-2309.
In fact, Samford's team has gone to a national tournament
the first four years of its existence:
1998--Silver Flight tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota
1999--Championship tournament in Des Moines, Iowa
2000--Silver Flight tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota
2001--Silver Flight tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota
| The Mock Trial teams are coached by Jason Wollitz (Cumberland alumnus), a Birmingham attorney. He was an All-American Mock Trial Attorney himself in his undergraduate career. His teams consistently place in the top five of the regional tournaments. In 1999, one of Samford’s Mock Trial teams earned its way to the prestigious Championship Flight tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, the highest level of mock trial competition in which the 32 best schools from across the nation participate. |
|
|
Samford, for example, went up against Harvard in the first
round. In 1998, our first year, we won an Outstanding New Program award
in St. Paul. Another first was that junior Marisa Lee and senior Dana Fountain
were named All-American witnesses.
To earn its way to Des Moines, the team placed among the top schools in
the regional tournament hosted at Samford at the Cumberland School of Law.
This was another achievement for the Mock Trial program–the first time our
school had hosted a regional tournament. Other teams competing in the regional
included Middle Tennessee State and Florida A & M University, two of
the top mock trial teams in the nation.
|
|
|
Setting a solid foundation for all Samford mock trial teams was Samford’s first-ever mock trial team in 1998, whose members included Susan McPherson, Marisa Lee, Tiffany Hansen, Lindsey Wade, Shelby Ayers, Jonathan Innes, and Becky Brellenthin. That team, also coached by Wollitz and Morgan, earned a noteworthy achievement by being invited to the Silver Flight tournament in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Marisa Lee was voted one of the Best Attorneys at the regional tournament in Kennesaw, Georgia, in 1998. |
|
|
|
|
This year’s Mock Trial program promises to be even better. All Samford prelaw students are eligible to join the practices, which begin in the fall when Samford is given the fictional legal case that all teams argue. To find out more about the Mock Trial schedule, contact Dr. Mark Baggett, 205-726-2309 or jmbagget@samford.edu.
American Mock Trial Association