Mock trial is a long-standing and successful academic club at Haverford. The team competes every year under guidance of school coaches and out-of-school advisors, many of whom are real-life lawyers. The ability to compete in real courtrooms, with real judges, under the guidance of actively practicing lawyers makes the mock trial experience more than worthwhile. The skills this unique experience provides helps to form students with a strong argumentative ability and the basic foundation to go into law, if they have an interest in that field.
Mock trial is structured in a way that allows students to get a feel for a real-life trial. The jury is comprised of many experienced attorneys, helping students to receive expert feedback on their work.
This year, the team found success in its competitions. There were factors that contributed to this success, as well as factors that created small setbacks along the way. First, the club as a whole saw a peak in its interest level this year, with a record number of around 50 club members. These members ranged in all levels of experience, from Third Formers to seasoned Sixth Formers. To accommodate this influx of interest, the club split into three teams, each with a defense and a prosecution. Each half of a team is comprised of 6 team members, which are split up into three lawyers and three witnesses. This team structure allowed each team member to embody a unique role and know that role extremely well, setting the team up for success.
This year’s case is one of confusion and intricate relationships, following a dispute between small business owners. One of said business people is murdered, leading to disarray in the town of Wisawe.
In prior years, the team started practices when the case came out, in early November. However, due to the increased amount of interest and a new vision for the season, practice layouts were changed in some ways.
“The idea behind the bootcamp was to build a foundation for team members… We did this to review things from court etiquette to rules of evidence to how to tell a story.”
Mr. Benjamin White
For example, the team opened their season with a “rules of law bootcamp” this year.
“The idea behind the bootcamp was to build a foundation for team members. Especially for new kids, but also for the veterans,” said mock trial coach Mr. Benjamin White. “We did this to review things from court etiquette to rules of evidence to how to tell a story.”
Being a new form of practice, Mr. White was able to assess how it affected the team.
“I think it went well in some aspects, we got people talking in front of each other, working on public speaking, and we did go through a lot of the evidence rules that we wanted to,” Mr. White explained. “But it is a work in progress.”
Mr. White also commented on the new structure of teams in the club, saying, “it didn’t work out as well as we would’ve wanted it to, but having that many people is cool for the program.”
The team recently qualified for the district semifinals, after a long season of improvement.
“It’s been amazing to see the arc of this season,” said Mr. White. “We didn’t get a chance to scrimmage before the Ben Franklin Invitational tournament, so we went in kind of blind. I think a lot of kids ‘grew up’ over that weekend as they learned about the case and got ideas from other teams.”
Despite amazing improvement, the team was knocked out of the district tournament at the semifinal level, due to many absences by Team One members due to other commitments. To account for this, Team Three members, mostly Third Formers and Fourth Formers, filled in.
“Individually, a lot of people have made super growth, but as a team, we still have some work to do in terms of polish,” Mr. White said. “Next year, we hope to go even further.”
Looking to the future, Mr. White sees small changes that the coaches could make to position the team even better for success.
“I think we’ll bring tryouts back for team one, to see who’s really committed and dedicated to the team. We’ll also have a lot of rising leadership that can help coach the younger team members and help lead the club,” Mr. White said. “We’ll go far next year.”