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Clinical Professor Ann England has coached mock trial teams at Colorado Law since she joined the faculty in 2005. We caught up with her about what’s on the horizon for mock trial in 2018, why she enjoys coaching, and what makes a strong advocate.

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When I was in law school, I was on the national mock trial team and really enjoyed it. When I was practicing as a litigator, I was constantly being asked to judge mock trial tournaments, and when I began teaching at Colorado Law in 2005, Professor Pat Furman (’80), who was the coach at the time, asked me if I wanted to take over.

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I would love to go to nationals! Mostly, though, I just want the students to get better. For students who want to be litigators, mock trial is really important because students get an opportunity to learn important skills without the pressure of learning on the back of a client. Litigation is all about how you react under pressure, and it’s hard to practice. There’s nothing like a competition for students to test out who they are going to be when they get in a courtroom under real pressure with something to lose. It’s also a great opportunity to practice making ethical decisions. Ethics is really easy when you’re sitting in class. But when you’re representing a client, pissed off, and under stress and see an opportunity to do something unethical, that’s the true test. Those moments are amazing learning opportunities.

"Ethics is really easy when you’re sitting in class. But when you’re representing a client, pissed off, and under stress and see an opportunity to do something unethical, that’s the true test. Those moments are amazing learning opportunities."

We have a very narrow, TV-oriented view of who a good advocate is, and that’s not necessarily accurate. All of my competitors have come from totally different backgrounds—including an MMA fighter and TV news anchor—and have really different presentation styles. They didn’t all necessarily know they were going to be that good at oral advocacy until they got in the courtroom, tried it out, and got pushed to be better.

One thing I learned from coaches at other schools is that they set up practice rounds in front of actual judges around their state to train. So that is something that our teams do now. Judges open up their courtrooms to us on a regular basis so we can do practice rounds. Not only has this allowed students to build relationships with judges (which has led to several clerkships), but the students get the experience of doing a mock trial in a real courtroom and receiving feedback from the judge. Students prepare harder and feel actual pressure. After we started training this way five or six years ago, we went to nationals twice!

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Judges who have opened up their courtrooms to us include Christine Arguello, Elizabeth Brodsky (’97), Eric Elliff (’87), Susan Fisch, Bruce Langer (’94), Sheila Rappaport, and William Robbins (’87), to name just a few.

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The National Trial Competition is one of the most rigorous mock trial competitions in the nation. It is particularly difficult because the competition provides the witnesses (as opposed to the team bringing their own), so the advocates must respond to the new and varied responses of their witnesses on the stand. This makes it much more realistic (and unpredictable) for students. Three of my teams have won regionals and advanced to the national round of this competition: La Kischa Cook (’09), Katherine Decker (’10), and Tyrone Glover (’09); Megan Bradford (’15)—who now serves as my co-coach—and Conor Flanigan (’15); and Erica Kasemodel (’16) and James Waldo (’16). We also send teams to other competitions throughout the year, including the Student Trial Advocacy Competition put on by the American Association of Justice. Colorado Law competed in the national finals of this competition in 2009 and 2011.

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To join the national mock trial team, students must first participate in the Carrigan Cup Trial Competition, an in-school competition held every fall. The top two teams are automatically on the national mock trial team, and the other competitors can then try out for positions on the mock trial team.

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