Mock Trial Team Ends Successful Season

The Harvard mock trial team, a close-knit group of pre-laws and legal enthusiasts, worked its way to the best finish in recent memory last weekend at the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) national championship.

One of Harvard’s two teams, the “blue” team, placed seventh in one of two brackets at the tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, which ran from April 2 to April 4.

The College’s mock trial team is composed of two eight-person teams, which practice together throughout the year. The other mock trial squad, the “red” team, did not go to nationals.

“The team as a whole worked well together and worked very hard,” said captain Krishna A. Rao ’05, who is also a Crimson editor. “It really is a function of the people.”

In the beginning of the year, the AMTA decides the case that will be tried in every round of every tournament, switching between criminal and civil cases every year.

This year the team had to prepare for the criminal murder trial of a hockey player accused of killing another player on the ice. Over the course of the tournament, teams have to prosecute and defend; they don’t find out which side they’ll argue until just before the trial.

The intense preparation often includes independent research in addition to four meetings per week. “Arguing for months about case theory, the reading of the rules of evidence and how to shape each witness was draining,” said Eric S. Nguyen ’06.

The team has two coaches, Clifford Sarkin and Mushtaq Z. Gunja, both 2Ls at Harvard Law School. The team also receives advice and guidance from Jerome P. Facher, an attorney with Hale and Dorr LLP who, according to Rao, was the basis for Robert Duvall’s character in the movie A Civil Action.

TAKE IT TO COURT

Both the red and blue teams began the season with an invitational tournament at Yale in November, one week before the Harvard-Yale football game. Captained by Sheila Chandrasekhara ’04, the red team placed third at the Yale tournament, which was attended by over 30 teams.

The AMTA’s 20th season opened with regionals at Princeton in February. From regionals, teams may advance to one of three national tournaments. Competition is harsh—over 500 schools compete in the AMTA—and Chandrasekhara’s team barely missed nationals.

The blue team, nicknamed the Litigators—with the stress on “gators”—moved on to the national championship, which is held every year at Drake University in Des Moines.

Talia Kraemer ’06 said she was exhilarated by her first chance of the year to compete in a real courtroom. “We were in Iowa; we were at nationals; it was the culmination of a year of work,” she said.

Some team members, such as Rao and Kraemer, participated in mock trial in high school. Others are new to the activity—but according to Rao, they learn quickly.

Rao, Chandrasekhara, Nguyen and most of the team look forward to law school. Others, like Kraemer, have joined the mock trial team for fun and the unique intellectual experience.

“We’re just a diverse group...ranging from government to economics to physics majors,” Chandrasekhara said.

In the courtroom, three team members act as attorneys, and three as witnesses. Trials can run as long as three and a half hours from opening to closing arguments.

Two real-life attorneys judge the trial, each submitting a separate ballot.

At nationals, the blue team split the first round with Georgia Tech. After beating the University of Minnesota and Florida A&M, the team lost narrowly to Columbia.

Rao said that watching the loss was the most memorable experience of the tournament. He described the round as a “close and spirited” battle.

“It humbles you to lose to a team that is excellent,” Kraemer said.

Some team members recalled fun moments playing witnesses during the rounds.

At the Princeton regional, one female team member donned a wig and make-up to play a middle-aged witness. Princeton happened to be having an alum event over the weekend, and in the bathroom, one alum mistook the team member for an older graduate herself.

The captains and team members look forward to a successful season next year. The team has made nationals two years in a row, and Chandrasekhara believes that they are “getting more recognized across campus” as a result.

But the team needs more funding if it is to send more teams to national championships. Other schools have larger programs: Yale, for example, fields six teams.

The mock trial team at Harvard is entirely student-led and almost entirely student-funded.

“I hope that the college recognizes the needs of its students, the needs of those students dedicating large amounts of their time to representing the college in competitive competitions in the Northeast and around the country,” Daniel L. Goodkin ’06, a member of the team, wrote in an e-mail.

“What I can say ultimately about this team is this: If I had to defend myself against some serious and of course unfounded charge in a court of law, I would not hesitate to enlist the services of my teammates to defend me,” Goodkin wrote.