COVID-19 forces mock trial contest to go virtual
NORRISTOWN » While a pandemic forced them to perform virtually this year, some aspiring lawyers cut their teeth in the legal arena while taking part in a mock trial competition sponsored by Montgomery County’s top law enforcement officer.
Traditionally, during the annual intern trial competition sponsored by District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, law students who spend their summers working in the district attorney’s office meet in a courtroom to prosecute a hypothetical criminal case. The young lawyers then are critiqued by prosecutors who have worked in the trenches for many years.
But this year, social distancing and restrictions on how many people could be at the courthouse during the coronavirus epidemic meant that the mock trial competition had to be held virtually, with the intern prosecutors and those who portrayed the judge, jury, defendant, defense attorney and witnesses all connected in a virtual courtroom through a video-conferencing app.
“These eight, second-year law students were some of the best we have seen. Not only were they solid in their skills and had a great work ethic, but they also rose to the challenge and adapted to the virtual environment in which we all now must operate,” Steele said on Friday.
Leah George, of Greensburg, Pa., representing Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and Jillian Kennedy, of Annandale, N.J., representing Drexel University Thomas L. Kline School of Law, won the competition.
Emily Hoff, of La Quinta, Calif., from Temple University Beasley School of Law, and Cecelia Carreras, of Mission, Texas, who attended Villanova, took second place in the final rounds of the competition.
Interns Madeline Bagley, of Ambler, Kendal Kessler, of Abington, and Shelby McBride, of Indiana, Pa., all of Temple law school, and Ryan Kelly, of Franklinville, N.J., of Villanova law school, also competed in earlier rounds.
“Every one of the students was prepared, poised and professional in their prosecution of this mock trial case, and it was a close decision as to the winners, but Leah George and Jillian Kennedy were just excellent in the homicide prosecution they conducted,” Steele said.
During the competition, the eight law students acted as prosecutors of a fictitious murder case that involved legal hurdles and factual challenges to create difficulty, going up against a current prosecutor acting as a defense attorney. The roles of witnesses were portrayed by current prosecutors and members of the district attorney’s staff.
In the final rounds on Aug. 14, the jury was comprised of Steele, deputy district attorneys and several other prosecutors. First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann, Jr. sat as the judge for the final competition.
Normally, the secondyear law students are part of a larger summer intern class of between 30 and 40 undergraduate and law students, all working in the district attorney’s office for the summer. However, this year, to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the president judge and court administrators modified and restricted access to the courthouse, not allowing any interns from any courthouse offices to work in the building.
So, the larger internship program was cancelled, and the second-year interns were provided a robust online learning experience, observing court proceedings through Zoom and Scopia video-conferencing systems. They also prepared, researched and wrote legal briefs for current court cases and learned about all aspects of investigations and prosecutions from detectives and prosecutors during weekly training sessions and other educational activities.