Street Law clinic holds mock trial

by Kayleen Hartman, 1L
Law Weekly
April 7, 2009

Last Wednesday, April 1, jittery high schoolers in suits gathered in the hallways of the D.C. Superior Courthouse. They were there to compete in the first rounds of the Street Law Clinic’s Mock Trial competition, the culmination of six to eight weeks of intensive study and preparation.

“This is unlike anything they’ll encounter in high school,” said Professor Richard Roe, the clinic’s director. “Many of these students come from a background of adversity and struggle and have basic learning issues. But at the end of the program, they have the ability to engage in a sustained intellectual process at a very high level. It’s very exciting.”

This year’s competition was the 37th Annual Street Law Clinic Mock Trial. When the program first began in 1972, there were two schools participating. This year that number has grown to 17, and 24 student teams competed on Wednesday night.

The mock trial this year was conducted around a fictional date rape case, in which a young college student accuses her boyfriend of rape after a night of partying and alleged jealousy. The students split into teams and play the roles of defense and prosecution attorneys and witnesses. In the course of the competition, students conduct direct and cross examinations, make opening and closing arguments before a judge and panel of scorers, and give testimony before the court.

Prior to the competition itself, students have spent weeks preparing with their Georgetown Law student instructors, developing a theory of the case, and creating a strategy for their side. With the help of law students, they decide how best to conduct examinations of witnesses, deliver their arguments, and offer their side’s testimony.

The mock trial is conducted based on a course packet that contains the fictional affidavits of witnesses, a record of the police report and the physical evidence, as well as the (also fictional) relevant case law. The students study this material for weeks, learning it inside out, so that by the time it came to compete on Wednesday night, they knew the facts of the case and theory of the law for each side inside out.

According to Roe, it’s an invaluable educational experience. “They use their cognitive and expressive skills through the device of formal advocacy to plead their cases.”

The students argue in front of robed “judges,” many of whom are actual superior court judges or magistrates in real life, and most are former graduates of Georgetown Law or closely affiliated with the Georgetown Law community. Most of the scorers for the competition were Georgetown Law students who were interested in the clinic’s work, including a few 1Ls who were considering participating in the clinic in future years.

Stacey Fernandez, 2L, volunteered to serve as a scorer after friends in the Street Law Clinic solicited her help. She described her experience as, “a fun way to help out my friends and do some community service at the same time. My trial was really interesting. It was definitely an experience that I would like to repeat. ”

The clinic attracts repeat participation from the judges and scorers and many who had gathered at the courthouse on Wednesday night had been involved in the Street Law Clinic for years.

Roe made particularly enthusiastic mention of Ed O’Brien, who along with three other students founded the Street Law Clinic in 1972. He went on to become the Executive Director of Street Law, Inc., an organization which took street law all over the country. His belief in the effectiveness of Street Law as an educational tool was not limited to the United States. Consequently, he started Street Law in South Africa, where it was one of the first integrated high school programs in the country. He returned to the Georgetown Law Street Law Clinic to serve as a judge on Wednesday night.

Also returning to serve as judge was Joseph Kijewski, who graduated from Georgetown Law in 1985. He first participated in the Street Law clinic as a student from 1983-84 when the team he led made it to the final round of the competition.

“Doing Street Law at Georgetown was the most fun I had in the three years I was there,” says Kijewski, “It gives the students a taste of something they’ve never experienced, and opens their horizons.”

Roe agrees that the clinic’s fundamental purpose is really to encourage the growth and learning of the students involved.

Says Roe, “The purpose is not to win; the purpose is for everyone to make progress in learning.”