Fall 2011 Try-Out Information

Activities Fair:

Come visit Virginia Mock Trial at the 2011 Activities Fair, Monday, August 22 on the south end of the Lawn!

Information Sessions:

We'll answer all your questions, and you can sign up for a tryout time.

• Tuesday, August 23, 7-7:30 pm
• Wednesday, August 25, 7-7:30 pm
• Thursday, August 24, 7-7:30 pm

If you can't attend any of these info sessions, please contact the Tryout Coordinator, Megan for information on how to sign up for a tryout slot.

Tryouts require absolutely no prior experience with mock trial, law, or courtroom procedure. You can try out to be both an attorney and a witness, and those interested are encouraged to do so!

Tryout Checklist

Step 1: Sign up for an interview slot

If you missed our info sessions, you can sign up here. If no timeslots work, please contact Megan to schedule a different time, we'll be sure to work with you to find a time.

Step 2: Download the tryout packet

All of the information you'll need for tryout preperation is included in the packet. Have fun, and be creative!

Step 3: Fill out tryout questionaire

The last step is filling out the form below, which will let us learn a little more about you.

What are we looking for?

You don't need any mock trial experience‚ many of our most successful competitors had none before they got to U.Va. You don't need to want to be a lawyer; our members go on to do all kinds of things, including medical and other grad school, teaching, engineering, banking, consulting, and working in politics. So what are we looking for?

• Any kind of public speaking/performing experience
• Actors (this year's case has 10 different witnesses to play)
• Experience working in a team environment
• A passion for and commitment to competing at the highest level

We have no age requirements, and encourage upperclassmen to try out as much as first-years. In fact, in the past, first-time, upperclass mockers have been some of our most successful.

We are looking to fill some key positions for witnesses vacated by graduated students, and are therefore especially on the look out for those with acting experience. Please fill out the contact form at left if you have any interest in receiving more information regarding tryouts.

What's in it for you?

What can you get out of joining Virginia Mock Trial? We're glad you asked. Mock trial will teach you how to:

Argue.
Dreamed of giving a closing argument to a packed courtroom? How about an objection battle with your (or their) whole case on the line? Or swatting away questions from the witness stand as one of their attorneys tries desperately to discredit your testimony? You'll get a chance to do all of those.

Perform.
Collegiate mock trial cases have 9-12 witnesses from whom to choose and the opportunities for characters, costumes, and props are endless. In the last couple years, we’ve had people play weeping widows, police officers (in uniforms), remorseful criminals (in prison jumpsuits), retired bakers (in wigs), CSIs (with diagrams), Italian mechanics (diagrams again), German movie stars, British executives, and many, many others.

Think.
Mock trial isn't checkers, it's 3-D chess, and that means a million moving pieces to keep track of if you want to win. From permutations in witness line-ups (last year's case involved more than 100), to working through how your team's theory of the case stacks up against other theories, to anticipating what evidence might be introduced and when, to making sure your team doesn't run out of time, your brain has to be firing on all cylinders‚ including ones you didn't know you had until it happens.

Persuade.
At the end of the day, a mock trial team wins because judges they've never seen before decide they like the product that team is selling better than the other team's. Like most things in life, winning in a courtroom can be as much about presentation as content, and mock trial will teach how to master both: everything from which gestures are most effective and which words have the most psychological impact to how to balance assertiveness as a zealous representative of your client with deference to the court. It's like marketing and business communication rolled into one, and you've got the best seat in the class.

Of course, competing for Virginia Mock Trial doesn't just give you skills. You'll also get:

Camaraderie.
Sure, you make friends doing any extracurricular activity. But mock trial is different. A mock trial team has just 6-8 people and there are only 14-16 students in the whole program, and you'll be seeing those people more often than it makes sense to estimate: at practice, tournaments, and every conceivable event in between. Mock trial is also inherently addictive, meaning that, if you let it, it quickly becomes a lifestyle more than pretty much any other extracurricular. Some of your best friends will be in this program. Trust us, we know.

Travel.
We compete in about eight tournaments per year. This season, we're already confirmed for trips to Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, DC, among others.

Hardware.
Virginia Mock Trial won the national championship in 2006 and 2007 and came a single ballot from appearing in the national final round in 2005, 2010 and 2011 as well. During the last five years, our program has won 23 tournaments‚ more than half of those it has attended‚ and we won ten tournaments during the last two years alone. Our competitors have won 118 individual awards in five years, including 66 attorney awards and 52 witness awards. We've also had 11 different competitors named All-Americans during that same time span. Don't think that just because it's your first year doing mock trial you won't be successful. Every single member of our program‚ including all five first-year members‚ was on a team that won at least two tournaments last season. We are the only program in the United States that has qualified two teams the National Championship Tournament for five consecutive years (the next longest active streak is two years) and the only program in have two teams currently ranked in the National Top 10. Following 5th and 8th place finishes at the 2010 national championship tournament, Virginia Mock Trial will begin the 2011-2012 season as the only program in the country with two teams ranked in the Top 10. So dust off some shelf space. You'll probably need it.