The University's Mock Trial team earned several awards last weekend at the Great American Invitational Tournament in Washington D.C.
Two University teams competed in the tournament -- Team 972 and Team 973 -- with Team 972 winning first place in the tournament, and Team 973 placing seventh with an honorable mention. Third-year College students Samantha Bateman and Lauren Charneski, co-captain of Mock Trial Team 973, both won outstanding attorney awards.
The University teams were coached by Law School students Daniel Shapiro, Ryan Perry and Charles Stopher.
A total of 26 schools attended the tournament from across the country including Columbia University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Southern California.
Charneski said mock trial is designed to give students experience with trial procedures as well as develop critical thinking and communication skills.
Each team debated a total of four times, twice to prosecute and twice to defend. Each round lasted for a total of three hours and each side in the round had one hour to present its case, according to Charneski.
The mock trial judges, who are local attorneys and judges, scored each team's performance in varying degrees, Charneski said. At the end of the tournament the total records of every team were compiled to determine the winner.
Charneski said she looks forward to competing in future tournaments.
"Competition was a great success; hope to do it again every year!" she said.
The next tournament for the University's Mock Trial team is the Corn Shucker Invitational which will be held in Iowa this weekend.
--Compiled by Christopher Riggs
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