The UAB Mock Trial team at the University Boulevard Office Building parking deck prior to their drive to Jackson, Mississippi.February was a successful month for the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Mock Trial Team. UAB’s team, consisting of 10 women, recently won the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) Spirit of AMTA award at the organization’s regional tournament in Jackson, Mississippi. According to AMTA, the award “recognizes a team’s character and commitment to the ethics of the legal profession. The winning team exhibits good sportsmanship and fair play in the face of competition.”
Typically, mock trial teams consist of students who take on the roles of attorneys and witnesses in a case and simulate a trial. At UAB, the team is open to all majors, helping participants develop skills in critical thinking, writing, presentation, and professionalism.
The UAB Mock Trial Team’s journey to regionals began early in the morning on February 16 when the group met on the top floor of the University Boulevard Office Building parking deck. They loaded into cars and prepared themselves for the four-hour drive to the Mississippi College School of Law.
“Over 300 undergraduate teams compete against each other,” explains Brandon Blankenship, J.D.; UAB Pre-Law Director; assistant teaching professor in the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice; and advisor to the UAB Mock Trial Team. “It’s not just the competition, it's the relationships with undergraduate schools across the nation.”
AMTA regionals could be considered the pre-law equivalent to college basketball’s "March Madness.” According to AMTA, the association hosts 28 to 30 regional tournaments in the country each year. The top teams from each tournament advance to compete in the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) competitions held in March followed by the AMTA’s National Championship Tournament in April.
“[Students] don’t just see it as a competition. They see it as, if they do well, [the tournament] can open doors for them in law schools,” Blankenship remarks.
In August, AMTA released a fictional court case for participants to learn and memorize. During the tournament, teams are assigned roles that fall under prosecution or defense, and they must successfully portray each role during trial. Role assignments for defense or prosecution are given to the team moments before the mock trials begin.
This year’s AMTA competition case materials were over 250 pages in length.
“The prosecution will pick who they’re prosecuting, and then the defense team must be agile enough to put the defense together depending on who is being prosecuted,” Blankenship describes.
Teams are graded on knowledge of court rules and proceedings, persuasion, public speaking, and professionalism. Two judges are present during the “trials” and grade each team on a ballot. The ballot includes performance feedback and is converted into a score after the competition round ends. Scores determine progression in the tournament and next opponent pairings.
“We’ve been working on this for months,” says Lane Stefurak, a junior in the Graduate Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s program in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. “Since August, we have been reading the case materials, going over how to do all the different... trial skills, whether it’s direct or cross-examinations, opening and closing statements, and objections.”
Stefurak was one of the mock trial team captains for UAB, and, during the competition, she served as the prosecution team leader. Kyla Diei, a senior in the pre-law track majoring in psychology and minoring in Spanish, worked as defense leader and co-team captain.
“We spent [time] on the materials kind of like the same amount of time you’d spend on another class,” Diei explains.
Practice for regionals started in the summer with a weekend-long boot camp that equipped prospective tournament participants with the skills needed to compete. The group’s team coach Phil Fikes, an attorney in the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office, led the camp and would stop by after work to guide the team through weekly practices. The team met in person on Wednesdays and virtually on Sundays—at times for up to four hours—to prepare for AMTA regionals.
“They’re all great,” Fikes says. “We started [practicing] way back in the summer, and they have consistently been there.”
When the team arrived at the Mississippi College School of Law, they learned that they would be the first team to compete.
“While you’re in it, it really isn’t as bad as you think. Like, what I tried to do is not focus on the other team or their skills...but try to focus on me and my team and do the best that we can,” Diei explains.
Photo of Lane Stefurak (left) and Kyla Diei (right) posing with the American Mock Trial Association Spirit of AMTA award.During the three days in Jackson, the team completed four trials—two performing as defense and the other two as prosecution.
“It can get pretty intense in the courtroom,” Blankenship says. He notes that moments during cross examinations could become “animated” at times.
There were instances of competitors using scare tactics to rattle UAB team members acting as witnesses. At other times, competitors delivered unprofessional remarks while the UAB team addressed the court. Despite these experiences, the UAB mock trial team maintained their composure throughout the trial proceedings.
“Some people think in order to be an attorney... [you’ve] got to yell, scream, or embarrass a witness, and it’s really not about that,” Diei says.
By Sunday, the team had completed their closing statements.
“All of us want to be attorneys,” Stefurak says. “We all want to work within the legal system and the field of justice... but that motivation can only take you so far when you’re in the thick of it. I think us having each other is really what pushed us to the finish line.”
During the awards ceremony, the team waited for the results of their weekend. Then it happened––UAB was announced the winner of the AMTA Regional Tournament Spirit of AMTA award.
Diei states, “It was great. Despite everything we were facing, we didn’t let negative feelings or bad attitudes come out or be rude to the other team[s].”
The winner of the Spirit of AMTA award is decided by other participating teams who assess their interactions and behavior throughout the competition. The other teams vote on the winner after each round.
“I think that's the best award they could have received the whole weekend,” says Fikes. “Because it hopefully showed them that they were [competing] the right way. I’m very excited for them.”
The UAB Mock Trial team is already preparing for next year’s regional tournament. Students interested in being a part of the team can attend weekly practices on Wednesdays from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in University Boulevard Office Building Rm 226.
