The Benefits of Making the Mock Trial Team

Next week, the FSU College of Law Mock Trial Team will hold its annual tryouts. The Mock Trial Team is one of what I call the "Big Three" extracurricular activities a student may do while in law school. The other two are Law Review and the Moot Court Team. Being asked to join any of these three groups is a big deal and a significant boost to your resume.

Law Review and the Moot Court Team are somewhat more prestigious than the Mock Trial Team, at least at Florida State Law, but I would argue that the Mock Trial Team is the most practical organization to join in terms of helping you develop skills that you will actually use in practice.

While Moot Court prepares you well for appellate law, this is a relatively small niche. Very few lawyers actually end up doing appeals work.

Mock Trial, on the other hand, prepares you to successfully conduct trials, and there are more job opportunities for trial work (litigation) than most areas of law.

I made the Mock Trial Team in January of last year. From my personal experiences, I can say that being on the team has helped me with my confidence in public speaking and in developing my abilities to persuade others in a courtroom setting. I've gotten great practice in questioning witnesses who will not cooperate and give me the answers I expect, and I've improved my ability to recognize when to object to another lawyer's technique or strategy in the courtroom. This experience has given me a leg up over other students who will be put in a trial setting for the first time in their lives only after they have graduated from law school.

The Mock Trial Team also affords you the opportunity to meet established litigators and judges in the legal community. These individuals come to the law school to coach our team and provide instruction to us on what techniques they believe are effective. They also serve as possible references and employers for you.

As a member of the Mock Trial Team, when I graduate I will have the confidence to walk into any litigation firm in Florida, no matter how large, with a copy of my resume and say, "Hello, my name is Nathan Marshburn. I am a graduate of Florida State Law, and I want to work for you."

I hope by the time that I graduate, I will have the ability to listen to anyone on the street about their possible legal case, make a good decision about whether or not to take the case, and then be able to move the case from start to finish in a trial with a successful outcome. This goal is still a work in progress, and in all likelihood I will need substantial real world experience to reach this level of competency. My work with the Mock Trial Team, however, has moved me toward that goal at a much faster rate.

Even if you do not want to practice in a courtroom, the Mock Trial Team eliminates the fear of other litigators. You learn what we are about, what goes on in a courtroom, and what we can and can't do in front of a jury. So, when the other side threatens to go to trial, there is not so much of the unknown involved. You can make a better business decision for your client.

There are few negatives associated with trying out for the Mock Trial Team. Even if you do not make the team (and most students will not), it is a great challenge and public speaking experience. I encourage all law school students to give this organization a shot.

Universal Health Care Now,

Nathan Marshburn