Announcements

1.23.12

Spider champions!

Making its first trip to Richmond in two years, VaMT wins its third tournament of the season with a perfect 8-0 record. That same weekend, VaMT also finishes third at NYU's Downtown Invitational Classic after facing the tournament's first (UCLA), second (Harvard), and fourth (UC-Irvine) place teams. Five program members win individual awards. Next stop: regionals.

11.7.11

The Gavel comes home!

VaMT wins its second consecutive tournament of the season at the 8th annual Great American Mock Trial Invitational in Washington, DC. Team 972 wins the tournament with a record of 11-1, with team 973 finishing close behind at fourth. Seven program members win individual awards. Thanks to all of our participants, who came from far and wide to make the tournament a great success.

10.24.11

Three-peat at CUBAIT!

VaMT becomes the only program to win Columbia University's Big Apple Invitational three times by capturing its third straight title. Team N takes first place with a record of 7-1, with Team M finishing tied for fifth. Anya Havriliak, Megan O'Donnell, and Ben Wallace all take home individual awards. Full results coming soon on the Competition page.

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Mock Trial Memories

 

What is Collegiate Mock Trial?

Mock Trial is an extracurricular activity which provides undergraduate students the opportunity to compete on a national level.

Tournaments consist of trials between plaintiff and defense teams. Each team consists of 6-10 members, six of whom will actually compete at any given time (three as attorneys, three as witnesses). Each trial focuses on a single case, alternating annually between a criminal or civil legal issue.

Who competes for Mock Trial at UVa?

Virginia Mock Trial is open to all undergraduate students. Students with interest in the law, as well as experience in theater or public speaking are encouraged to try out, although neither is necessary. We always have a diverse range of majors represented, from Foreign Affairs to Classics to Physics to Computer Science. All are welcome!

Graduates of Virginia Mock Trial currently attend law school at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, and UVa. Our alumni are currently working as lawyers, law clerks to federal judges, bankers, teachers, management consultants, software engineers, and speechwriters in cities including Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

You could be next! Try-outs are held early in the fall semester. For more information, please see the recruitment page.

How successful is Mock Trial at UVa?

Very. Virginia Mock Trial won the national championship in 2006 and 2007 and came a single ballot away from appearing in the national final round in 2005, 2010 and 2011 as well. Since the fall of 2005, Virginia Mock Trial has won 27 tournaments---more than half of the those that it attended. Virginia Mock Trial has won its regional tournament for five out of the last six years and has won its super regional during each of the three years since AMTA switched to a two-stage system of qualifying for nationals.

A central feature of Virginia Mock Trial is its depth. The program's "B" team has won at least one tournament for five consecutive years, and Virginia Mock Trial is the only program in the United States that has qualified two teams to the national championship tournament for each of the last five years. The B team also has enjoyed great success at nationals, with three Top 10 finishes and four All-American awards since 2007. In 2010, a B team that included five new program members finished 5th at the national championship tournament---the highest finish by a B team in Virginia Mock Trial's 15-year history.

Following 5th and 8th place finishes at the 2011 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 nationally.