"Look at all my trials and tribulations
Sinking in a gentle pool of wine (I wish,ed.)
Don't disturb me now....."
The lines above are taken from "The Last Supper", a song from Jesus Christ Superstar. An appropriate opening to this piece. Firstly, Good Friday is this week. Second, this first Rock Opera came out when I was in high school at Detroit Catholic Central. And, most importantly, the lyrics are a spot on summary of my state after the twelve hour Mock Trial regional on February 26, 2022, wherein I coached that same Catholic Central high school's Mock Trial team.
The Michigan Mock Trial competition is sponsored each year by the very noble non-profit , The Michigan Center for Civic Education, and its director, Ellen Zwarensteyn. They do a great job. I first became involved with Mock Trial as a judge in 2012. At that time, the Center for Civic Education had just lost its federal funding amid a round of other cutbacks. The lost $250,000 yearly allocation has still not been completely replaced from other sources. Knowing that history adds to my admiration for what the Center continues to do.
Briefly, Mock Trial is a competition, where high school students will try a case, based on a set of facts, pleadings, statements and exhibits released in November each year. A team is a minimum of 6-3 lawyers and 3 witnesses. Teams are required to litigate both sides of a case. No jury per se. Trials are scored by a panel of 3 judges. The competition's first round is a regional of 3 trials in one day. This is a highly abbreviated description.
Teams are coached by teachers and/or volunteer attorneys. It is a big time commitment for a practicing lawyer. I was an assistant coach back in 2015, but I had to drop out until this year because of my work schedule. Coaching Mock Trial was near the top of my post litigation career list of things to do. And, ironically, coaching the young CC lads would get me back into a courtroom, a rare occurrence since the March 2020 Covid court shutdown.
Covid had hit the Mock Trial program as well. The March 2020 shutdown order came in the middle of regional competition season, and the remainder of the regionals and state finals were cancelled. The 2021 season was totally virtual. There were many reasons for that arrangement, one of the foremost being that all the courthouses that hosted the trials continued to be closed to the public. The 2022 season was to include live proceedings as an option, and that certainly would have been my preference. The Omicron variant put an end to that.
Although Catholic Central High School has a great tradition of attorney and judicial alumni, it has been historically difficult to get attorney coaches for the team. It is a big commitment. Last year the team was coached by a CC teacher, who had left at the end of the school year. There had not been a lawyer coach in several years and during at least one of those years, CC did not field a team.
In 2021-22, I had more time. And Bryan Kontry, a 2001 CC alum, took time from his full time practice and young family to help coach the team. We had 4 veterans. We also had 6 freshmen. We had no faculty moderator. As the late, great Jack Benny said in similar circumstances: Yipe!
Continue reading "(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 1" »